The Eyes of Merlin
by MysticDew
Summary: Harry finds a mysterious, ancient potion tucked in a corner of the library, labeled 'the eyes of Emrys.' Desperate for a plan for the second task, he drinks it. Eventual Pairing: Harry/Morgana.
1. Chapter 1: A Harry Situation

**The Eyes of Merlin, Chapter 1: A Harry Situation**

**Disclaimer: I am not the owner of Harry Potter or Merlin, and I am making no money off of this fanfiction. This will be the only disclaimer saying this.  
Summary: Harry finds a mysterious, ancient potion tucked in a corner of the library, labelled 'the eyes of Emrys.' desperate for a plan for the second task, he drinks it.**

Harry sat in the back most corner of the library, holding a small clear vial and pouring over a large tome.

The book he held was ancient - as was the crystal vial with a translucent golden substance in it.

He trailed his finger down the potions book, his heart racing when he found a title - The Eyes Of Emrys - listed. Blearily, he blinked and, to keep himself awake, whispered aloud with increased excitement.

_"The eyes of Emrys potion is an extremely rare substance, only one batch has ever been successfully created, and the existence of even a drop of this potion is unlikely to survive to this day. __  
__"The potion mimics the legendary power of Emrys the Warlock, who was able to direct his magic with naught but a thought, and the collection of magic in the eyes. A unnamed man said to have used it once said..."_Harry stopped reading.

He looked at the bottle speculatively. If this was as good as it said, what would keep him from... He didn't know, become a merman under the water, like (he felt silly for remembering this, but it was one of the few movies he had seen at his primary school) the king in the little mermaid?

Unhesitatingly, he uncorked the bottle with difficulty and gulped down around a quarter of it.

Stifling what would have been a very unmanly yell, Harry slumped on the table, covering his eyes as they felt lit aflame.

At least, it felt like they lit on fire. He gasped and opened his eyes, looking at the reflective surface of the darkened window.

His formerly green eyes, hidden behind his glasses, flashed with an unnatural yellow, and the pane he looked at shattered with a brighter flash of his eyes.

He gasped, wondering why it broke, hoping that it somehow simply repaired before someone - Madam Pince, especially - came along to see the broken glass.

Before, in his frenzy, he could even think of grabbing for his wand, heat again returned to his eyes and the window was repaired.

A slow smile spread across Harry's face. This could be good, yes this could be very good indeed.

Absently, he read the first-hand account, "_'The effects are unlike anything that thou haft seen. A single drop gave me a full year of this extraordinary power, and consumption of five drops lasted for mine whole existence. The stars are the limit of this substance, for nothing I have tried have I been unable to complete.'"_

Abruptly, Harry re-corked the bottle, tucked it in a pocket, slammed the book shut and walked swiftly away. Maybe this wasn't so good. He had swallowed at least twelve drops worth.

"There you are Harry, I've been wondering. Have you seen Ron? I think Professor McGonnogall was talking to him and Hermione. Hey, are you ready for tomorrow?"

Harry grinned easily at Neville's stumbling. "I think I've got a bit of an idea, Neville. Now all I need to to is not oversleep." he laughed, and Neville stared at the dramatic change in his roommates mood.

"I'm glad, and I'm sure you'll do great Harry. I'm going to go to bed now, g'night."

"Good idea, night Neville." Harry replied with a smile. He got into bed and lay, eyes on the top of his four-poster, until the steady snores Neville was famous for filled the quiet room, joining the soft breathing of Dean and Seamus.

Harry sat up in the darkness, looking for a light. His wand was on his bedside table, so instead he simply held up a hand and said, "Lumos," in a whisper.

A single speck of soft yellow fire rose above his hand, casting shadows around him. He stared in wonder, and moved his hand around, the fire following it.

Frowning, he extinguished it (nox!) and started again, keeping his arms at his sides.

So quiet it almost wasn't there, came the gentle word "Lumos" again.

A single ball of what looked like compressed fire floated at eye level, the light almost too bright to stare at.

He shook his head to clear his thoughts. He needed to work on his plans for tomorrow. Or was it today? Harry was slightly concerned that no more than a moment after he had he thought the word 'Tempus' than a glittering manifestation of the time appeared in front of him, joining the still-lit Lumos.

Ignoring those for now, after noting that today was, in fact, tomorrow, he thought about merpeople. In the movie he'd seen, at least, the top half of the person remained the same, while the bottom adopted a fishes tail.

Of course, he would need to alter his breathing as well, so his lungs could tolerate water.

He couldn't do that now, so he settled with the bottom half.  
He held a hand uncertainly above his stomach, and thought about the scales and tail he had seen.

Slowly, with a burn that flashed across his eyes, his feet became a lightweight tail stretching twice the length of his feet. The hairs on his legs stood on end and shifted, melding with the skin to form scales. In under a minute Harry's bottom half was completely fish-like.

He ran a hand over what was once his leg, feeling the smooth and cold scales that were so easily altered. He hoped they worked in the water.

Now came the difficult part. How could he insure that his lungs would survive the water? He thought on this for a minute, not noticing the increasing dreamlike qualities of his thoughts before he drifted off, curling around his tail in his sleep, giving in to exhaustion.

Harry woke with a start, tail flipping oddly trying to push the covers off as he normally did.

"Blast." he muttered, pointedly concentrating on the feeling of having legs instead of a tail. It worked, and within a minute Harry was a normal human again.

Nodding to himself, he got out of bed and looked for the best thing to wear to this challenge.

He noted the distinctive maintained quality of his trousers, and sighed in relief. He wouldn't wear a shirt, as that would slow him down in the water. It was probably best to wear a pair of light trousers and change while in them.

He stood up properly and went down to the lake, this time remembering to check his watch instead of summoning the time in front of him to see if he had time to eat. He didn't. He dimly noted that he should take the watch off before the trial began. With a bit of a smirk on his lips, he took it off his wrist and banished it cleanly back to his room.

As he got into more crowded areas of the school, he met groups of girls standing on the side of the hall every so often burst into giggles.

Harry was confused. What possessed them to giggle so much? He almost looked down self-consciously, realizing he was shirtless, but thought better of it. He couldn't look that horrible. Looking quizzically at them, he rolled his eyes as they again burst into giggles. He would never understand them.

"Ah, Harry! Good of you to come on time." Bagman clapped him on the back. Harry nodded distantly, still worried about the breathing problem. He fingered his wand in his pocket absently, reminding himself to use it, or pretend to. He had no clue what the Eyes of Emrys could get him into trouble with, it could be illegal for all he knew.

Snapping out of his daze, he was just in time to hear his announcement to be ready to enter the water. He stepped confidently up to the waters edge and waited for his cue. knowing it took about half a minute, he began taking his shoes off and starting the change. By the time the signal was given all he had to do was wave his wand for appearances, give one burst of magic sending his eyes surely yellow, and jump in the lake.

Moving his powerful tail, he swam on the surface out to the middle of the lake, surprised by the ease and speed of it. When he got there, he thought of his body adjusting to the water, becoming fish in all but shape.

He breathed steadily, until a breath of air became a choke. He submersed quickly, taking a deep breath of water.

Dully, he realized he had no way of locating 'what they took.' he started heading down.

It felt wonderful, better than flying! He moved completely of his own accord, in any direction, his deep green tail accommodating his every wish.

He must have spent five minutes simply swirling around, laughing aloud when he realized he could speak underwater. Coming back to his senses, he swam to the semi darkness of the bottom of the lake.

There was a gradual slope heading inward, over forests of seaweed and rocks. Somewhat confused by the Grindylows drifting in a group behind him, Harry drifted upwards to stay clear out of range.

He noticed, as he swam quickly down, that there was some sort of town appearing. He swam down into the outskirts, a clear appearance of house-type buildings along a sort of road-space on the floor of the lake. Disregarding the merfolk that looked uncertainly at him from their houses, he sped up to what looked like a town centre, where a huge jagged rock protruded from the sand.

Attached to it were four figures - Ron, Hermione, Cho Chang, and a small girl with brilliantly blond hair.

These were the things they would miss most! The blond girl for Fleur, Cho for Cedric, Ron for him and... Hermione for Krum? Harry hadn't realized Hermione had made such an impression on him just by going on a date. He shrugged, and looked at the two mean, ugly guard mermen on either side of the boulder, asking, "I am supposed to take my person and swim back?"

One gave a short nod, and he approached the boulder.

Ron was drifting, mouth agape, red hair floating wildly. With a concentrated thought, Harry's eyes went gold and the rope holding Ron unravelled

Holding his unconscious friend by the arm, Harry looked around for the rest of the contestants.

The eerie voice echoed in his head: "the prospects black, too late, it's gone, it won't come back." they only had an hour, and Harry knew the three of them hadn't had the same advantage he had. He looked to the mer-guards.

"They'll be safe, right, if they aren't picked up in time?" he asked worriedly.

"No harm will come to them." the first merman said stiffly. Harry nodded, relieved, and swam away with Ron, not seeming to realize he had spoken mermish.

As he swam, he slowly started to shift back, knowing it would be stupid to lower his score because of transition time. Soon enough he was swimming butterfly with Ron dragging along, and his lungs slowly burning for air.

Pushing off the floor of the lake, Harry shot up to see that he was still very far from the shore.

"Blast" Harry muttered, his mouth still underwater, breathing in liquid. Harry kicked butterfly style to get back quickly, keeping Ron's face above the lake.

People in the stands were cheering, some looked confused, some outright mad that the underdog Hogwarts kid had again come out on top.

When Harry reached the place where his feet could touch the rocky ground - closer to shore than Harry would have liked, curse his shortness - Ron began spluttering, waking up from whatever spell he had been under.

"Mate, what's happening? Where are we?" Ron said confusedly.  
Harry couldn't help it, he laughed.

"We're in the shallows of the lake, and I've just won part two of the tri-wizard tournament."

Ron shook his head and looked at the crowd. "What 'appended down there?" He said, spitting out water.

"You and three other people were tied to a rock in a mervillage. I had an hour to get you back. I don't know how long it's been since I got in the water though, so depending on when they get back..." Harry trailed off.

"Blimey." Ron said, shocked. "How'd you do it?"  
Harry glared at him. "Not now. In the common room, with you and Hermione, we'll talk."

They had reached the shore, and a very irate Madam Pomphrey stood waiting for them, hands full of towels and potions.

"Oh bloody 'ell." Ron moaned. Harry gave him a look of mock-horror, then grinned.

As she engulfed them in so many towels Harry thought he might actually drown in them, Ludo Bagman sonorus'ed himself onto the loudspeaker.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, arriving first with Twenty-five minutes to spare is Harry Potter!" a giant cheer rose up around him, but Harry wasn't in the mood. He was worried. The more he thought about it, the more concerned he was about the 'eyes of Emrys' potion he had unhesitatingly took. What if there were nasty side effects he didn't know about? What if it was illegal? He could get in serious trouble and according to the book, the mouthful he took might keep it in his system forever!

"At least it won't matter if they take away my wand" Harry thought glumly.

His wand! In the short time since he'd taken the potion, Harry hadn't even tried using his wand. He had even gotten used to not using it. How had he done that? It wasn't just something you threw away!

Quickly, Harry snatched his wand from the back pocket of his trousers, thankful it was still there.

"Ron? Give me a spell, any spell." Harry said frantically.

"Er, aguamenti?" Ron said questioningly.

"Perfect, thanks. Aguamenti!" Harry held his wand tightly, waiting for the spell to take effect.

"Aguamenti! Aguamenti!" What's going wrong?" Harry took his hand of of his wand. Feeling the warmth of magic he hadn't even realized left, Harry felt his eyes warm as he said quite clearly, "Aguamenti." He brought his hands together and felt the clear water fill in.

"what's wrong, mate?" Ron asked, looking intently at his hands. Harry dropped the water and wiped his hands on one of the many towels.

"Here, Ron, try to cast aguamenti with my wand. Don't ask now, just try."

Ron looked at him suspiciously. "Alright, mate. Aguamenti." He flicked it casually, but not a single drop of water came out. "No, sorry. I don't think I can use yours. What's wrong?"

"I need to talk to Hermione." Harry said, shaking his head at the absurdity of it all.

"Well where is she, she was the thing Krum would miss most, yeah?

He's bound to be back soon." Ron said with a hint of anger. Harry nodded absently.

As if on cue, a giant fin rose out of the water, attached to what was surely a sharks head, human arms, legs and torso. The half-shark pushed a figure with curly hair and Hogwarts robes to shore, crouching in the water to undo his self-transformation.

"Of course. I turn myself into a stinking mermaid and he gets to be a shark... I'll never live this down." Harry moaned, only glad that no one had truly seen him as a merman.

Ron looked over, "What did you say you turned yourself into?" the makings of a smile kept firmly behind a straight face.

"Not important. I won, didn't I? And you got to be a part of it. Let's just say I made myself a giant fish."

Ron shook his head, barley keeping himself from laughing. "You've been to the prefects bathroom, haven't you? Charlie said there was a lovely painting of a mermaid done up in there. Don't worry, mate, I won't tell anyone. I'm sure you made a very manly mermaid."

Harry almost groaned, but a thought made him smile. "Yes, and I'm sure the girls will love the story of you being rescued by me, to near certain death. It'll go over quite smoothly. Quite the damsel in distress." Harry was, for the first time, glad that years with living with Dudley had trained him to be able to think up a retort like that, and was only slightly worried that Ron was the victim of it.  
Ron's pale face went white, and as Hermione and Krum approached Harry was practically rolling on the floor, he was laughing so hard.

"-I don't know why they allow you children to get so beaten up, Mr. Krum. I was hoping it was safer... Harry here hadn't a scratch, but no matter. I'll have you fixed up in no time. Now where was that bottle..." Madame Pomphrey muttered to herself, walking by and holding a furious Krum by the arm.

Harry couldn't watch though, because his vision was soon filled up with light brown, drying frizzy hair. "Hermione!" Harry said, returning the forceful hug awkwardly.

"Harry, you're alright! I was so worried last night when I realized I had to leave you, and you hadn't a plan at all! What did you do? I'm so proud of you for making first, congratulations! Of course Victor was very good too, he did a partial self-transfiguration! You know that's NEWT material! Oh it's all so exciting, you'll have to tell me what happened before I got here!"

Harry pulled out of the embrace, holding his friend at arms length. "'Mione, I'll explain everything when we get back to the common room. Now you've got to calm down, go talk to Victor, thank him. He DID just save you."

Hermione looked at him for a moment, mouth agape, then nodded.

"Right. Of course. Thanks, Harry."

She walked off, clutching her towels and heading to Krum, who sat a few meters away.

"Wow, Harry. Whatever you've done that you can't tell us yet must be pretty amazing. How did you ever manage to get Hermione to stop talking?"

Harry shrugged, barely able to believe it himself. As he watched, he saw Cedric and Cho stumble out of the water, right as Bagman announced the time was up.

The crowd sat on the edge of their seats, Beauxbotons students sitting stock still, waiting for Fleur. For a minute, there was almost absolute silence, until a very Colin-like gasp was heard from the stands, and Fleur appeared with a bubble around her head, dragging the small blond girl that must be her sister.

Cheers filled the air as Madame Pomphrey ran towards her, readying her potions. Harry heard, above the roar, Bagman telling the crowd that Dumbledore would talk to the merfolk leader, to get the whole story now that everyone was there.

"Merlin, you can't catch a break." Ron chuckled. "You just better hope that - whatever you did - will get lumped in with Krum's self-transfiguration."

Harry nodded, "Like you wouldn't believe."

Absently, he noticed that Dumbledore had come back to the judges table from screeching to the merman, and was giving Bagman information for his next announcement.

"Our Headmaster Dumbledore has been speaking to the Chief of Merfolk, and thanks to his information the judges will come to a conclusion.

"In fourth place, Fleur Delacour arrived fourteen minutes after the designated time, but still managed to save her sister Gabrielle. For this she is awarded twenty-five points."

Bagman paused for the cheers of the Beauxbotons students, before continuing, "In third place, we have Cedric Diggory, who, while saving Cho Chang was one minute outside the time limit due to grindylows, his efforts will award him with forty points." More clapping, and Bagman moved on.

"In second place is Victor Krum! His quite partial transfiguration into a shark nonetheless did the trick, with ten minutes to spare. He is awarded forty-five points."

He paused for the longest time yet, as the crowd roared its approval.

"And finally, our twice-winner, young Harry Potter! This contestant showed an advanced form of morph-magic by transforming into a southern merman! For his outstanding flawless performance, he will be awarded Fifty out of fifty points, taking the leading position in the Triwizard Tournament!"

Ron and Hermione looked at him in wonder, both trying to say something over the thunderous applause. When it finally died down, Ron said, "Blimey, Harry, Morph Magic! That's practically bein' a metaphorphagus! Why didn't you tell us?"

Harry looked up, confused. "Haven't been able to do it long enough. What exactly's morph magic?"

Hermione was about to reply, when Ludo Bagman approached to collect the contestants. Harry heard Fleur muttering to her sister about how fortunate she was that the grindylows were all absent.

Fortunately, Bagman made the meeting quick, only telling him he'd meet with them on such-and-such a date, and letting them go.

Harry gratefully walked back up to Gryffindor tower with Ron and Hermione, starting to talk once he got to the quieter secret passageways the Marauders had inadvertently helped him with.

"It was last night, after 'Mione had to leave, when I found this strange potion called 'The Eye of Emrys' in a secret compartment of a book. It was a bit off- the book was hardcover but still, I could swear the compartment was bigger on the inside. But anyway, I found this potion, and after a whole lot of searching I found a book that referenced it. Said there was only a small amount ever made, but the effects were amazing - gave you the ability to work old magic - like Emrys, whoever he was. Anyway I drank it, anything to help me get through today, you know?"

He stopped abruptly when he realized Hermione had stopped, hands over her mouth and eyes popping out of her sockets. "The magic of _Emrys_?" She all but screamed.

"Yeah, that's what it said. Who was he?"

"Merlin, 'Mione, it can't be that horrible!" Ron put in his two knuts in.

Hermione shook her head frantically, taking her hands off her mouth long enough to say, "But that's exactly it! Emrys IS Merlin! Harry somehow gained the powers of the most powerful warlock in all of history! This is wonderful! Unless... Harry, how are you feeling? Are there any side effects to this? Show me your wand work!" Hermione demanded, excitement and fear growing.

"Actually I was having a bit of trouble with that, look!" Harry decided now was not the time to dwell on the origins of the potion, just the effects. He waved his wand, saying, "Lumos!"

Nothing happened.

"Harry, try it without the wand." Hermione said. Harry complied, repeating the command.

A shining ball of light rose in the air, emitting brightness that filled the whole room.

Hermione gasped. "I can't believe this! It's incredible, I've only ever heard of something similar happening with wandless magic, but that takes years, and still doesn't inhibit wand use! We have to look at this. Harry, we need to go to the library. Ron-"

Ron shook his head frantically, saying, "No, I've got to go to the tower. Have fun."

Harry glared at him behind Hermione's back, but didn't say anything. "Come on, Harry, we'll figure this out."

At nine o'clock that night, a very exhausted and irate Harry and a triumphant Hermione left the library, heading up a staircase towards Gryffindor tower. The halls were mostly empty, only scattered students made their way to their dormitories. Harry met her eyes carefully, flicking his gaze to a large tapestry, then looking back at her. She nodded minutely, and they snuck under it, hoping no one saw.

"Alright Harry" she said as they stepped into a well lit but empty hallway, the other end clearly marked by the backside of a tapestry.

They wouldn't even be disturbed by Madam Pince, in here.

"We're going to see the extent of what you can do. Try to Accio my book without saying anything."

Harry glared at the book, not even bothering with the words in his head, and it zoomed towards him.

"alright." Hermione said calmly. "Now turn the book to page 524."  
Harry closed his eyes, putting a hand over the well-worn copy of Hogwarts: A History, flipping through the pages until it reached 524.

"So it's sight based? I assume you were picturing it." Hermione paced around the room. "Maybe... Harry, conjure a mirror. A big one."  
Harry frowned a bit at this. How were mirrors made? A piece of glass with a dark background, he could try. Or maybe a piece of silver glass...

There was soon a four foot wide mirror, floating to sit a few inches above the ground and below the ceiling.

"Amazing! And do you feel tired at all?"

"I feel fine, Hermione. Honestly, it seems to be alright! I just want to sleep!" Harry glared angrily at her in the mirror.

It shattered.

"Harry?" Hermione looked at him worriedly. "Harry, maybe we should go to Professor Dumbledore."

Harry scowled. "And be expelled? I'd rather go to Snape."

"But, Harry, I think you should." Her eyes flashed. "If you don't, I will."

Harry frowned. He knew Hermione would do it, the Firebolt last year had proven that quite clearly.

He thought for a moment. "Alright, Mione, I'll talk to her tomorrow. We have to get back to the common room before curfew."

Hermione grinned victoriously, before her face fell when she realized they would have to run to get back in time.

Harry lay in bed, looking thoughtfully at his closed curtains. Emrys, the greatest warlock of all time, Merlin, whatever you call him, he had to have a better grasp on his magic than Harry did. Maybe he learned how to control it before getting all of his power, like Wizards do now at seventeen. If he had it all at once, it could explain all the problems he was having. Or maybe it was about taking too much of the potion. If only he could meet Merlin, ask him how he controlled his powers-

-"Ow." Harry said blankly, sitting up on a hard, stone floor. For a moment, it seemed that he had just fallen out of bed, but looking around, he saw a very different room than the one he left.

"Oh dear, this isn't good." Said a voice above him. He looked up, and saw an old man wearing blue robes with a weird design running down the front.

"Oh bloody hell, my head hurts." Harry said, wincing. "Sorry about this, sir. I don't quite know what happened. Where am I?"  
The man grabbed his arm, hauling him to his feet, then keeping his grip as he wobbled. "You are in Camelot. I don't know how you've gotten here, but you've at least come to the right place. You're in a sorry state." The man led him to a bed at the edge of the room, "I am Gaius, King Uther's court physician. What is your name?"

Harry blinked stupidly for a moment, looking at the old-fashioned castle room, "Er..." He stumbled for a bit, knowing he couldn't go by Harry, and ended up spluttering, "D-" At some point, he was going to use the first name that came to mind, Dean. somehow, it came out as- "Draco. My name is Draco." 'Great code, Harry. Perfect.' He groaned mentally.

Harry thought quickly, this didn't seem to be a magical castle, he wasn't talking to a healer but a physician. He could only assume he was somewhere in the past. 'Stranger things have happened.' he chuckled to himself mentally.

"I was in my bed, in my castle, and all I remember was coming back from the library with my friend. I went to bed in my... chambers, and found myself here." Harry knew he couldn't look like he was unsure of his story. Even though his mind was racing, his palms wetter than they had been in the lake, his rush of adrenaline allowed him to answer perfectly.

qGaius looked at him seriously. "That is troubling. Well, I can Only Conclude," He said firmly, in a way that clearly said 'Go along with this, whether it's true or not' "You are the victim of Dark Magic. Clearly, they wanted you to appear in Uther's court to frame you for using magic, and sent you here. Did you have any enemies?"

That same pointed look was sent at him again. Apparently, Magic was banned here (Magic banned in Camelot! Hermione would never believe!) and Gaius knew he was a wizard, and was willing to get him out of it.

"Yeah. I- there was this man, Marvolo, he was called, he's been attacking my castle and trying to kill me. He... I've never met my mother because of him." Harry trailed off, not needing to fake his emotions for this, "She died when I was a year old. Marvolo killed her with Magic, and it was only by sheer luck my father and I were rescued." He had a bit of a plan, and it would only work if he could pass of one of his parents being alive.

Gaius nodded. "That is very interesting. It will make a very good tale for the King. With that background, young Lord from a far away land, you might become a royal guest. I believe I can talk to the King for you. And Draco?" Harry nodded, "I'll send for my ward, Merlin. He is Prince Arthur's servant, but Since you are still looking ill, I will ask for him to come."

Harry was proud when he only twitched at the names. "Thank you, Gaius." He said with a smile.

Gaius smiled back at him kindly before leaving.

The moment the door was closed, Harry collapsed back onto the bed, groaning. "How the bloody hell do I get into these situations?"

**AN: So! Like it, love it, hate it? I'd love to hear what you think.**

**Chapter Word Count: 4874**

**This is a WIP, so as the story is written, some things are going to change. **

_**Thanks for reading!  
SH**_


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome Back

Chapter 2  
For all chapters, the real disclaimer will only be in the first chapter.

Disclaimer: In a land of myth, and a time of magic, the destiny of a great kingdom rests on the shoulders of a young man... but another young man accidentally disrupted the time stream and it all went insane.

Summary: Harry deals with landing in Camelot, and makes some friends as he tries to decide what in the world happened to him.

On with the story!  
_-*-_

Harry looked around the dark room, whispering "Lumos" so he could see clearly. The room was cluttered, full of potions and ingredients.  
Suddenly, the door slammed open, and a tall, dark haired boy ran in, panting.

"Nox!" Harry whispered frantically, but it was no use. The boy had seen the light.

"What was that you just did?" He said carefully.

Keeping his cool in case he hadn't actually seen, Harry said calmly, "What? I hadn't done anything. Sorry, but to what are you referring?"

The boy smiled. "Oh, you're good. Gaius warned me about you. Maybe you can teach me? I'm Merlin, by the way."

"Hello Merlin, I'm Draco. That's funny, because I seem to be needing a teacher on something too." Harry motioned to where the glimmering ball was before, and recreated it silently.

Merlin stared at him for a moment, then his whole face lit up, and he lifted his hand.

A second ball of suspended flames joined the first, and chased Harry's. He quickly moved his away, and before they knew it they lights were dancing around the room, and they were laughing, falling on the bed as their lights winked out.

Merlin, who's face was just recently filled with laughter, sobered. "All enchantments and magic are illegal in Camelot. If you really want to learn magic, you should go somewhere where it's allowed."

Harry looked at Merlin, this insanely famous warlock, and tilted his head. "Well why are you here?"

Merlin slumped onto the side of the bed. "It's my destiny."

Harry nodded, "I hate destinies. There are prophecies and you're somehow supposed to know just how to do things to make them turn out right." Harry thought of the prophecy Professor Trewlany told, how the Rat had escaped right after.

Merlin nodded, "I've got a prophecy, too. Killagarah... He told me my prophecy

when I had just come to Camelot. And now, even though I'm Magic, I have to risk my neck for Arthur-" He stopped abruptly, probably realizing he was saying too much. "Merlin," Harry said calmingly, "You needn't worry about saying too much. Our situations are similar. You have the potential to use deadly blackmail on me, and I on you. I swear to you, I won't knowingly get in the way of your prophesy, as long as you help me with my magic. In fact, if I can stay long enough, I'll help you."  
Merlin nodded, "I'll help you, Draco. I promise." At that, gold mist surrounded the two, sealing their deal. "What is that?" Merlin panicked.

"It is a magical oath, sworn between two powerful sorcerers. I hope you two know what your getting into." Gaius said from the hallway. "And Draco, I have explained to the King your... situation, and he has requested an audience when you are well enough. I suggest going now, for the King is not a patient man. Merlin, get him some proper clothing, and take him there?" He posed the end as a question.

Merlin nodded, motioning for Harry to follow him into a back room, which seemed to be Merlin's.

Harry realized he had gone to bed in only trousers, but they looked simple enough.  
"Here." Merlin said, holding up a simple blue shirt.

"Thanks, Merlin."

The shirt was slightly scratchy, but Harry had dealt with much worse.  
Merlin grinned, and walked out the door, "It's this way. And remember, address him as Sire, and don't do any magic..."

Merlin happily prattled to Harry as they walked down hallways towards the King. Harry wasn't able to pay much attention, he was worried about what could happen. If this guy was so against magic, he could already be in trouble for his arrival...

"Yes, Sire, it's how Gaius said. I have no idea where my Kingdom is in relation to here. Do you have a map, or something I could use?"

Uther, sitting comfortably on his throne, replied, "Of course, you can have access to our library, with my hopes that you find your home. In the meantime, consider yourself an honored Guest of Camelot, Lord Draco. Stay as long as you need."  
Merlin grinned widely behind Arthur, catching Harry's eye. He grinned slightly back, bowing to Uther with a, "Thank you, Sire."

Uther nodded. "Anything you need, don't hesitate to ask. It is always good to meet another who fights against the evils of Magic. My son, Arthur's, manservant will show you to your rooms."

Harry muttered another, "Thank you, Sire," before leaving the chamber, in step with Merlin.

"So, LORD Draco," Merlin said jokingly, assuming correctly that he was not, in fact, a lord. "I'm sure Arthur will introduce himself to you, so I'll see you soon either way. But I have a... special book you can come read whenever you'd like."

Harry grinned. "I just hope I stop getting angry and destroying windows... might be a little suspicious."

Merlin nodded. "I did that a lot, back in my hometown, Ealdor. I always had all this excess energy, and I'd get angry for no reason until I used it. Eventually I learned to do something, like heat up a sword before I started a fire."

Harry nodded. "That makes a lot of sense. Thanks, Merlin, I think that'll help me a lot."

Harry flopped on the large bed, exhausted. He hadn't ever gone to bed, after all, and he didn't have the adrenaline that came with the possibility of being caught to keep him awake now.

He had himself set up well, here. He was an apparent Lord, he wasn't famous, he could learn from bloody Merlin himself how to control this different magic. He had to do that before he went back, anyway, or he wasn't sure he'd be able to go back at all.

It was surely this magic that sent him back here, but how? Why? These were questions he couldn't yet answer.

_-*-_

The first time Harry met Arthur, Harry thought he was like an older Draco Malfoy. he was arrogant, blond and walked about the castle like he owned it... Hang on, he did own it. And that was where the similarities ended.

"Hello, Merlin, how are you?" Harry said happily, accidentally ignoring Arthur.  
"Hey Draco! I'm great, actually. Only I've got to run errands for Gaius." He made a face, and Harry laughed.

"Oh, you must be Draco. I'm Arthur," The Prince cut in, holding his hand to Harry, looking a bit miffed at being ignored.

"Hello Prince Arthur! It's very good to meet you. I was hoping to run into you sometime soon." Harry said, shaking his hand.

Arthur smiled a bit more warmly. "Well, while my idiot of a manservant is gone," he looked secretly fondly at Merlin, "Would you fancy a spar on the training fields?"

Harry grimaced. "I'm afraid I was never properly instructed, though I have used a sword before."

Arthur turned slightly to Merlin, and they shared a private grin. "Well, you can't be worse than him." He said optimistically.

Harry slashed left, missing Arthur's sword by half an inch.

"Sorry." Harry muttered.

Arthur shook his head. "Don't apologize, Draco. You're doing quite well. You have good reflexes. What was your experience with swords?"

Harry fiddled hopelessly with his practice armor, thinking, 'I suppose Harry Hunting was good for something then.' not knowing how to alter the story, Harry simply said,

"There was a basilisk. I was the only one there to slay it. I was only twelve when it happened, but I did what I had to."

Arthur looked mildly impressed. "A basilisk? That's a magical creature! And to slay it at twelve? Draco, you don't give yourself nearly enough credit."

Harry grinned appreciatively. It felt... nice to be able to tell people this, for it to be a good thing, especially without parseltongue coming up. It felt nice to be recognized, without being famous. "Thanks, Arthur."

Harry sat down hesitantly next to the prince for dinner later that day, gaining confidence when Merlin nodded to him from behind Arthur.

He hated formal dinners. The Yule Ball was bad enough, than you. Although, he did get to meet someone new. There was a beautiful dark haired woman sitting across from Arthur, staring pointedly Not at him.

"Well, Draco, I do hope your stay has been good so far." Uther said with a sip of wine.

"Oh, it has been excellent. It's quite finer than what I'm accustomed to, on my fathers lands." Harry internally snorted. That was a bald-faced lie. While it was nicer, technically, Hogwarts had house-elves and loads of history, people and magic. This place was... Colder, somehow. He noticed the awkward silence and realized they were waiting for him to speak again. "It is unfortunate that I haven't found any reference to my home, in your maps. No one seems to have heard of Scotland." He tried taking a sip of wine himself, relieved when it was very watered down.

Arthur smiled to him, "I'm sure you'll find it eventually, Draco."  
Harry nodded, looking unsure. (In fact, he had a pretty good idea where (or, more, when) he needed to go to get back, but it wasn't doing any harm stating here until he figured out the how, and he was having fun!)

"Well, you are always welcome here, until you can find your home. And after, feel free to visit. Camelot would happily host you."

Harry nodded gratefully. "Thank you for your kind invitation."

He looked across the table at the Lady sitting therewith an unreadable look on her face, as well as the darker-skinned girl standing behind her much like Merlin was standing behind Arthur. She must be the Lady's servant.

Uther noticed his glance and said, "Oh, Draco, I don't believe you've been introduced to my ward, The Lady Morgana."

Morgana inclined her head slightly and Harry half-bowed in his seat, muttering,

"Pleased to meet you, my Lady."

Harry collapsed on his bed. He hated formalities, and that was a test of both his lying and his patience.

Merlin followed him in, saying, "Arthur is worried that I'm forcing you to do your work yourself, and ordered me to come over here and 'At least clean his room or something, Merlin, we do want this man to feel welcome.'"  
Merlin mimicked Arthur's voice.

Harry giggled (no, chuckled with a high pitch, he assured himself) "Trust me, Merlin, I'm quite used to getting along on my own. I think having someone help me might hinder me. You know," he wiggled his fingers, making gold points appear around them.

Merlin nodded, moving to subtly block the magic light from the doorway. "As long as your careful, I think it's brilliant. At least you don't have Gaius to reprimand you whenever you use magic to finish chores."

Harry grinned. "You're always welcome to come here, instead. That'll calm Arthur's fears, as well as let you practice magic."

Merlin nodded happily. He tilted his head, grinning. "I can teach you and we can practice on Arthur's armor!"

Harry laughed. "Now Merlin, don't expect me to do your job for you." he said in a mock - reprimand.

Harry was walking to the library (well, he was at one point, now he was lost.) "Hello, Lady Morgana, It's nice to meet you properly. I'm H- Draco." 'Idiot!' Harry thought to himself. 'You're sounding like a fool, and giving away your secrets.' He tried to keep his true emotions off his face, and smiled at Morgana.

"It's nice to meet you, Draco." Morgana said, smiling back.

Harry idly noted that, while Morgana was beautiful and everything, she was like Fleur - older, sought after, and not a possibility.

It was a bit easier to keep his cool once he realized that.

"How has your luck been in finding your home?" Morgana asked.

"Well," Harry joked, "It was going great, but I got lost on the way to the library."  
Morgana's light laughter filled the hallway, and she smiled slightly down at him. "I'll help you find your way there."

Hours later, Harry was sitting in his room, trying to figure out the maps, he and

Morgana had found. At first it was for appearances' sake, but honestly found them confusing. He was still slightly grinning when Merlin walked in.

"So," he said, leaning an arm against Harry's bedpost, "My friend Gwen tells me that the Lady Morgana was quite taken with you, Draco."

"Really?" Harry abandoned his maps. "I just got lost on the way to the library for these" he held up two of the maps, "And we got talking. I don't know about _taken._"

Facing away from Harry, Merlin smiled knowingly, but didn't say anything.

"Draco, you have to turn your sword this way." Arthur showed him, twisting it so it caught the flat of his blade.

"Like this?" Harry attempted.

"No. Here," Arthur rubbed the back of his neck, "I'll get Sir Leon to teach it to you. He's the best at teaching this move."

Merlin, who had been following after Arthur, offered him a silly grin.  
Harry sighed. It wasn't quite his idea of fun to get sword fighting lessons, but he figured when he got home me might be able to use the sword of Gryffindor for the third task, or something.

"Hello, Sir Leon, it's good to meet you." Harry smiled.

"And you, Lord Draco." He smiled at the short boy. "You ready?"

"Not really," Harry replied, grinning.

Harry groaned, tearing off the chain mail and throwing it on the ground. "Oww..." He fell onto his bed.

Merlin walked in with his familiar grin, saying sympathetically, "I remember wanting to do that when I first came to Camelot. Arthur always used me for practice."

Harry looked up at Merlin, sighing loudly. "I went to school, back in Scotland. But we never did anything like this."

"What was your school for?"

Harry sighed again. This could be complicated.

"Where I come from, life is very different, and I can't tell you about much of it. I can tell you that most of what I've told Uther is a lie, about how I got here, but you know that. When I was one, my mum did something that let me kill the dark Wizard, Tom Marvolo Riddle. But my friend, Hagrid, thinks he could still be out there, and frankly, I'd have to agree. If he is, they'd expect me to fight. The non-magic people there, they don't know that Magic exists. they think it's fairy tale. I'm enrolled to learn Wizardry, and have been since three and a half years ago."

Merlin nodded. But why would Draco ask for help from him? He was a young warlock himself, and hadn't learned in school or anything. At the thought of the school, his eyes lighting up. If he didn't have this destiny... "I know what you're thinking, and yes, it'd be brilliant for you to go there, but you can't. I know, it's not fair. Even if I can get myself back, the magic I learned is different. In fact, I'm called something different, there, too. Harry Potter. If they knew I was going by Draco, they might even be a bit disturbed. Of course, I can never see them again unless I can get a grip on my magic, and figure out why and how I turned up here. That's why I needed your help..."

"So, Harry, you've been playing around with different magics." Merlin said half an hour later. "And you think

"Draco, please, but yeah, only my magic went haywire, and I can't use it now, that's why I asked for your help."

Merlin nodded, "Maybe it would help to see how they differ, so can we try to use some of your magic?"

Arthur was somewhat disturbed, when he walked in to Lord Draco's rooms, looking for his manservant.

Draco and Merlin were laying on the floor, using Draco's comforter as a carpet. Whats more, they were both giggling.

From his spot in the doorway, he could see a very deformed wooden duck sitting between the two.

"Merlin! What in the world are you doing? You have work to do!" Arthur glared at

Harry, and only waiting long enough for Merlin to run to the door, sending a perturbed look to Harry.

For the next few days, Harry was trying to work on magic, but he was still having problems. The only magic he could do without fail was transporting things, and little else.

The only time he saw Merlin at all was when he came storming in to his chambers, customarily not knocking.

"Dra- Harry you won't believe this."

Harry shot him a look, and Merlin shook his head angrily, "Draco, then. I need your help. I don't know if you've found out, but Morgana? She's got magic. She knows she's got magic. She just set fire to the drapes in her room, and she's gone to Gaius for help."

Merlin paused for breath and Harry cut in, "So what's the problem? Gaius knows enough to help..."

"But he won't help her!" Merlin moaned, "And Killagarah won't let me help her. I was hoping... it's you or the Druids."

Harry looked carefully at him. He had been reading... "Nomadic magic-using Druids? The ones that Uther's set to kill?"

Merlin nodded. "I don't have many options here. It's just... I know you can help her. You're here, and she likes you! And she can come here or you can go to her rooms without anyone caring, because you both barely need to do anything on schedules. I know you're not used to this type of Magic yet, but-"

Harry shook his head, stopping Merlin's speech. "Stop worrying, Merlin. I'll help her, if it means that much to you."

Merlin grinned widely. "Oh, thank you! This is brilliant!" he ran a hand through his hair in glee.

Harry laughed. Sometimes, Merlin reminded him a bit of an older Colin Creevey, but he would never admit that that could be a good thing. "Well, I need to keep working on fixing my own magic, but we can work together then. When should I go?"

"She'll be okay for the moment, because she's talked to Gaius, but that was a temporary fix." Merlin said confidently. "When something else happens I'll tell you, or I'll send her over."

Harry nodded. He'd have at least half a day, then, before something happened. A free half-day.

A thought came to Harry, something so second nature he wanted to laugh. He had a half day, and all he wanted to do was go for a good fly. It was probably one of the few things he couldn't do at all in Camelot, both to keep secret and because he lacked a broom. Unless...

When Morgana knocked on Harry's door the next night, Harry was working on creating a broomstick. He had thought about the spells needed to use it, (Flying, featherweight, the response when one called 'up!')

He hadn't gotten far, and now he had to confront a distraught Morgana. Harry opened the door slowly, to see the taller girl about to knock frantically again.

"Morgana? What brings you here? Come in." Harry said, pretending not to know what had happened for her sake.

"Draco?" Morgana started worriedly. "I hate to intrude upon you like this. But I was talking to Merlin about something, and he said you could help."

AN: And thats the end of Chapter two!

Chapter Word Count: 3244

My friend mentioned to me that my Harry is a bit OOC. I apologize for that, I'm trying to bring out the 'Slytherin Harry.' I feel like he has the potential to be quite sneaky, and a good liar. (In the first book, he was quite good at taunting Dudley and tricking Peeves.) I think putting him in these situations makes that come out in him more.

Also, I found this chapter really choppy. I was trying to fix it, but there was really no way to get through this part of the story without it. Hopefully it'll be less choppy when I can actually follow a chapter.  
If anyone notices a serious problem with my Merlin or my Harry Potter knowledge, feel free to point it out, I know I'm not always accurate.

_Thanks for reading!_

_SH  
_


	3. Chapter 3: A Merlin Problem

**Chapter 3: A Merlin Problem...**

**And a Potter Solution**

**Summary: Harry spends some time reflecting on his situation, helps a friend of a friend, and gets an nasty surprise.**

Harry looked up sharply, still pretending to not know why Morgana was there. He worked false emotions run across his face, that roughly read, 'There was only one thing she could be talking about, and that's Magic. And how could Merlin have told her!' He saw that Morgana had caught his expressions, so he continued.

"Well, I assume I know what you're talking about, but please, explain to me what you did Merlin. I promise not to act upon anything you tell me in confidence."

Morgana smiled at him gratefully, relaxing enough to sit down. "Draco, it's... it's about magic." She looked for his reaction, but got a carefully blank face. "I was talking to Gaius, and I know he knows about magic, but he refused to believe that I had it. But I know I do, I lit a flame up to a drape, and shattered the vase in my rooms. And I have these dreams..."

Harry stood abruptly, causing her to trail off, wondering if she had said too much. Walking around the table so that he was two feet away from her,  
Harry raised his hand and concentrated. A moment later, a small, glass lily was floating in the air. Harry let it fall lightly into his hand before presenting it to Morgana.

"I understand what's happening to you. I understand perfectly, like you wouldn't believe. But you have to trust me, because I really know that it will all be okay."  
Morgana looked at the lily in wonder. "You've got magic too?" She looked up hopefully, still needing verbal confirmation.

Harry grinned and nodded. "I know it all seems crazy now, while you're magic's uncontrollable and violent. You need an outlet for it, and whenever the magic makes you angry, or you get so scared it bubbles to the surface, focus on the lily – it should be able to absorb any magic you send it. But Morgana, you need to train, and to learn what magic is for. Now, I myself have only been learning a short time, and it's been self-study. We can learn together, if you like?"

Morgana looked like she was about to cry, or laugh, or both, but simply smiled and nodded vigorously. "Draco, I would love that. I always wondered what it would be like to have magic, but I never thought of the consequences. Of course, never thought magic was evil, no matter what Uther's tried to tell me since I came here. But it's frightening, to know if I slip, if something happens I'll be burned for what I am."

Harry nodded. He didn't like to dwell on it, but he was quite aware of the possibility since he learned of the ban. "You can't pay attention to it," he offered her. "When you're around him, your same as you've always been, with no magic to speak of. I know it's difficult, but you can act normally when it's just me or Merlin." He held up a hand to stop her comments, thinking she was about to question Merlin's trustworthiness, "Merlin knows my secret, and he at least has a hint of yours. I can assure you, he will tell no one."

Morgana nodded. "Thank you, Draco. You don't know what this means to me."  
Harry smiled. "It's the least I could do for a fellow magic user. We may be persecuted now, but I'm confidant we can make a change. Eventually. Good night, Morgana.

And sweet dreams."

Morgana smiled, walking out of the room and walking to the left.

"And I hope I can change what Destiny had planned for you." Harry said to the empty room, turning back to his broom.

It hit him, then. He realized it too late, after he had become attached to these people. Where and when he was from - in the future, at Hogwarts, everything here was destroyed. All these people - Merlin, Morgana, Arthur, Gaius, even Uther, they are all dead. If he managed to get back, these people would be hundreds of years dead. 'I don't want to go. But I can't stay.'

Harry thought about everything, tried to put it in perspective. "Think like Hermione, you dollop head." Harry said to himself. "You have to go back. You have a Destiny there. You've got a life, people who expect you."

A small part in the back of his mind said, 'You can stay here for however long you want. You'll just be 'lord Draco' until you go back, and no time will have passed.'

Harry pushed the broom away, laying his head on his arms. He promised to help Merlin, and to help Morgana. He would stay long enough to do that. But he would also make sure that when he did go back, whatever the third task was, he would trample it.

_-*-_

For the next week, Harry worked furiously, learning and trying to master his magic, and helping Morgana do the same. He trained with Arthur and his knights, fighting with all his might. The effort he gave, more than anything, kept them working with him.

Soon, he was settling into a routine, and had to shake himself awake again. 'You can't stay here forever' became his mantra, but he kept finding excuses to stay. The best excuse failed when Gwen, Morgana's servant and Merlin's friend, was captured, and thought to be Morgana. Harry had to comfort a distraught Morgana and wait with her as Gwen was returned safely home.

'See?' Harry's snide voice said to him, 'You aren't even needed. They managed perfectly fine and you didn't do anything at all. You just enjoy being someone else.'

Harry, like any sane person talking to their voice, replied, 'I do not! I have obligations here! I'm not neglecting them. After Morgana is in control of her magic, I'll be able to go back..' Harry couldn't bring himself to say home. This castle had become important to him too. He cared more for the people in general here, he didn't have any enemies and he wasn't held to expectations.

'You can stay here a while, but you must figure out how to get back now.'

There was a knock at the door. 'Alright, figuring out can wait... a bit.'

"Yes?" Harry opened the door. It was Merlin.

"Arthur was wanting to know if you wanted to go hunting with him." Merlin said.

"Uh... Alright. Do you recommend going?" Harry said blankly.

Merlin gave a so-so motion. "You could insult him if you don't go, and I'll be there so it won't be completely boring." Merlin grinned. "But it's pretty stupid. They'll kill anything that crosses their path."

Harry noted the scorn behind that, and had to ask. "What creature..."

"A unicorn."

"_Arthur Killed a Unicorn_?" Harry all but screamed.

"No, no. Well, yes. But he made up for it, and it's alive again." Merlin assured.  
Harry looked at him, confused. "It's alive... again. How?"

Merlin paused for a moment. "It's a long story. A very long story." Harry was about to comment, when Merlin said, "And you have to decide whether to go or not."

Harry shrugged. "You want me to come?"

"Oh yes please. Arthur makes me go every time, and I can hardly talk to him because he's 'focusing.'"

Harry nodded. "Great! What do I need?"

_-*-_

"You're right, Merlin. This is a bit boring." Harry said, falling in step with the servant, looking distastefully at the Prince and his two knights in red.

With a resounding cry, twenty-odd bandits came crashing onto the path.

In a moment, Arthur and his two knights drew their swords and slashed at the bandits, breaking through their forces, even gaining a bit of an upper hand...  
But not enough of one. The two knights were stabbed, one across the side and one through the heart.

Harry and Merlin glanced at one another, then at Arthur, who was nearly surrounded.

Harry drew his sword and tossed it to Merlin, then summoned one from a fallen bandit.

"Arthur! Look out!" Merlin yelled, prompting Arthur to turn and kill someone.  
Harry and Merlin fought through the five bandits between them and the prince.  
When they reached him, there were four left. Harry ran one through, just before the bandit ran Arthur through, not spending time to think about what he was doing, not paying any attention as a shallow gash was cut into his arm. Merlin burned one sword out of a bandits hold, and smashed him into a tree with a glimmer of gold.

When the last of the bandits turned and ran, Arthur and Harry were standing next to each other, panting. Merlin stood a few feet away, staring at the blood on his sword in disgust.

"You just saved my life, Draco." Arthur said in amazement, looking at the bandit Harry had run through without a moments hesitation.

Harry shrugged. "I did what I could. And you probably saved our lives, too."

Arthur shook his head. "Doesn't matter. My father will hear about this. You have my sincerest thanks." Harry would laugh at the wording that so reminded him of Malfoy, but it was said in a completely different tone, it didn't seem like the same words.

He nodded. "As you wish, Sire." He was still holding in his chuckles at Arthur's phrasing, and he was sure the words came out a little choked.

As Arthur looked over the dead, checking to see if any were alive (Particularly his Knights) Harry's adrenaline wore off, and he became aware of a stinging pain in his arm. "Ah!" he said softly. It wasn't the worst pain he'd been in, but he checked the wound, taking off his jacket. The gash he had gotten during the fight traveled down the length of his upper arm, making a curved jumble of blood soak into his shirt.

Merlin came over, "You're hurt." He stated, looking worried.

"I'll be okay. I'll get Gaius to take a look at it when we get back, if you want."  
Merlin nodded. "But, Draco, it could get infected."

"What could get infected?" Arthur walked over.

"Just a scratch." Harry said easily, shrugging the black jacket back on.

By the time they had gotten back to Camelot, and talked to the King, Harry's arm stung horribly. He walked quickly over towards the Physician's rooms, eyes staring ahead blankly.

"Draco? Are you alright?" He heard from behind him.

"Huh? Oh, Morgana. Yeah. But show me the way to Gaius's chambers?" Harry felt slow and stupid.

"Yes of course, I'll take you there. What's wrong?" She said worriedly.

"Uh..." Harry paused for a moment, trying to find the words. "My arm. But it'll be okay, it's only a scratch. I've had worse." He tried to smile, but the expression on Morgana's face told him he hadn't quite done it right.

He followed Morgana up an inordinate amount of stairs and hallways, mumbling to himself about how glad he was Madame Pomphrey wasn't here, and something that he would definitely regret later, if he remembered, about Morgana's hair, until they finally stumbled into Gaius's rooms.

"Gaius?" Morgana called. Gaius turned around, and she continued. "Draco injured himself somehow. He said his arms hurt, but I don't think he's thinking properly."

Gaius walked forward quickly, taking Harry's good arm - his left - and guiding him to a bed.

Faintly, Harry recognized him saying something, but all he could do was look at the way-too-comfortable looking bed, relieved. He practically fell onto the bed, and knew no more.

**Chapter Word Count: 1942**

**_Thanks for reading!__  
__SH_  
**


	4. Chapter 4: Beauty and the Beast

**Chapter 4  
Harry recovers from his severe blood loss, and Harry, Merlin and Gaius work together to reveal the true nature of the new Queen, Harry answers some awkward questions and the Queen dies. **

Harry came to slowly, automatically curling over onto his side. Seeing something glitter, he reflexively moved to grab it, but stopped immediately at the burn in his arm. He opened his eyes fully, blinking until the worried figure of Morgana came into view, clutching the twinkling glass lily Harry made for her in her hand.

"Morgana?"Harry wondered why she was there, but since she was, he was going to get some information. "What happened?"

Gaius appeared behind her, glaring at him. "Some idiot obviously decided that he didn't need to stop bleeding, and that the blood he lost would just appear back! You foolish boy, you lost a lot of blood by not just stopping the bleeding! You could have died from blood loss. And instead, you decide to bumble around the castle!"

Gaius walked away, now surely glaring at some undeserving potion.

"What happened?" Harry repeated to Morgana. "How long have I been out?" He reflexively looked for his watch, then realized he hadn't had it on since the second task.

Morgana looked at him with a worried expression, as well as an expression Harry had seen before on her, but couldn't name. "Three days, Draco. Your cut was just a bit deeper than you were expecting. If I hadn't found you, you might not have made it here. Gaius said you were almost fine, now. But you shouldn't move abruptly, or it'll open again."

Harry adjusted himself on the bed so he was leaning against the headboard, and waved his good arm in the air, in a careless motion. "I don't care about me. What's been happening in the castle?"

At that moment, the dark-skinned girl Harry vaguely recognized as being Morgana's maid walked in.

"Gaius, you've been summoned by the King. Um, you too, Morgana. I can watch Draco for you, Morgana, in case he wakes up - Oh, hello Draco, I'm Guinevere, but everyone calls me Gwen." Gwen quickly rerouted her speech, looking down.

Morgana shot her a short glare that Harry couldn't understand the meaning of, and smiled at Gwen.

"Hello Gwen! It's nice to meet you. But I don't need looking after, in fact," Harry stood up, "I'm quite fine. In fact, I think I might go to my..." Harry wobbled, and met Gaius's pointed glare. "Bed, right here, because that's where the Physician wants me to stay. Ok, calm down."

Morgana stifled a giggle at Harry, pausing at the door to smile at him.

"Thank you, Gwen. You will make certain he doesn't try to leave?" Gaius said, heading out the door as well.

"Sure, Gaius." Gwen said with a slight grin.

Harry twisted from his spot on the bed to see her properly. "Well, can you tell me what's been happening?"

Gwen bit her lip. "I don't know all of what's going on. I mean, Morgana was mostly here, so I had to drag her when she was summoned by the King. I know a Lady, Lady Catrina of Trigor, came a day or so ago. The Trigors were said to have been wiped out, but she and her servant, Jonas, escaped and made their way here."

Harry nodded thoughtfully, then paused. Something at the beginning of her little speech caught his attention. Morgana was here for most of the time, for the last three days?

"Morgana was here?" Harry asked the maid, a hint of a silly smile on his face.

"Oh yes, she was frantic, I think she didn't take Gaius's word that you'd be alright -" she slapped a hand over her mouth and turned away. "Oh I shouldn't have said that." She muttered, biting her lip.

Harry looked in the other direction, at a shelf full of potions, meaning to adjust his glasses. He quickly noticing their absence, and blinked quickly. That was odd. Why wouldn't be have his glasses on? And why could he see?

Harry looked at the far corner, where a large barrel stood. He could see the barrel clearly, every bit of the grain in the wood with a clarity that hadn't come even with his glasses. Harry speculated that it could be what his magic had focused on for the past three days, besides healing him, otherwise it the room might be in shambles, like the mirror he conjured for Hermione. That seemed so long ago, a different time... Harry shook himself out of his daze.

Gwen seemed to have gotten over her mortification by this point, because she happily rambled to him about Camelot, Merlin, the Lady Catrina, her Lady Morgana, and her family. "And Morgana's been a really good friend to me, too. You get on really well, and I'm sure you know by now what a good person she is. You know, when Uther -"

An irate Gaius and Merlin stepped in.

"Oh, what's happened?" Gwen asked, seeming to forget her earlier topic.

"The King has decided to marry the Lady Catrina." Gaius said glumly, sitting down at a table.

"Okay..." Harry said slowly. There was an awkward silence that stretched for a minute.

Gwen noticed the tense silence, then made a show of looking for Morgana at the door. Not seeing her, she said, "I'd better go find Morgana." She walked out quickly.

Merlin headed her off with a forcefully cheery wave. "Good luck!" Gwen smiled at him and left.

"So what's wrong with that?" Harry said, "Er, besides that she apparently got here two days ago?"

Merlin said, "Oh yes" just as Gaius said, "Everything is wrong." Harry cocked his head in question, and they said in unison, "She's a troll."

"A troll?" Harry said, thinking of the mountain troll first year. "Not a mountain troll, I hope?"

"No," Gaius said unhappily. "A Cave troll. They're greedy, and smart." Harry snorted. A smart troll? "Very smart." Gaius continued, tossing a glare at Harry's snort, "She took a potion to make herself human, stole the seal of Trigor, and got betrothed to the King!"

Merlin cut in, "And if we can't stop her, she'll be Queen." Harry nodded. A troll in any sort of a position of power was certainly a bad thing.

"Why does everything around me go completely crazy?" He sat on the bed, thinking. Well, his life more interesting. He wouldn't get bored. "Can I help at all?" He asked.

_-*-_

"And this 'Jonas' how can you be sure his information is trustworthy?" Harry asked, now brought up to speed with the situation.

"I don't know, I can't be. But it's the best chance we have available." Merlin said.

Harry nodded. "I'm coming with you."

Merlin scoffed. "If it's a trap, you'll be in trouble too. I should go by myself."

Harry rolled his eyes. Was he this annoying whenever Hermione or Ron had wanted to help him? He would try to be much less of an idiot when he got back. "And if it's a trap, you'll have me to help you. Besides, I'll only be there for backup. I'll stay in the shadows, if you want."

Merlin nodded. "Thank you." He gave in, obviously realizing that he couldn't talk Harry out of it, and he would probably be helpful.

The closer they came to the Troll's hideout, the worse the fabled smell became. "This is worse than Mountain Troll!" Harry muttered, covering his face with his sleeve.

"What about those things?" Merlin asked, only catching a bit of his comment.

"Some friends of mine knocked one out with it's club, at Hogwarts." Harry grinned. He would have so much fun telling Ron and Hermione this!

Merlin gaped. Harry motioned to something - someone - past Merlin's back. Harry himself in the shadows as promised. Harry cursed himself as his friend was trapped behind a wall of rock, and quickly ran up to it to try and get him out. "Merlin!" he yelled, "Merlin!"

"'-O aft- -er!" Harry heard, and replied with, "I can't understand you! I'm going to get this rock out of the way!"

Harry stepped back for a moment. In another situation, he'd simply take apart the rock wall one by one, but they were somewhat pressed for time. And that was when he realized he wasn't alone.

"Who's this? Another little human trying to foil my perfect wedding?" Said the troll with a cackle, who must have heard his shouts and come back.

"Oh, you're this Lady Catrina everyone's been speaking of? I thought you were supposed to be pretty!" Harry said, dodging out of the way as the troll cast a spell.

"And who are you, human?" The troll shot another hex at him, burning a good portion of the wall behind him.

"Oh, I'm nobody. Just... Lancelot," Harry grinned. Hopefully there wasn't actually a Sir Lancelot here, because whoever that was would probably be in trouble if Harry couldn't beat this stupid, intelligent troll.

Now he was using another false name, did he dare use magic? Harry narrowly avoided a swing of the trolls fist and decided that yes, he did need magic. He shot a blasting hex at her, raising his hand in a manner that reminded him of using his wand.

"Ooh, Lancelot has magic! This could be an interesting tidbit for the King to hear. But I do have somewhere to be." She snarled, "And I'm afraid you can't come!" With a word that sounded like gibberish to Harry, he fell to the ground and knew no more.

"Draco? Draco! HARRY!" he heard, and opened his eyes to see Merlin leaning over him. "Harry, we've got to go! It's morning, the wedding is today, it's starting!"

Harry shot up, ignoring his recently acquired light-headedness in an attempt to keep his balance - and ultimately failing.

"What happened? Merlin, my head hurts." Harry groaned.

"Well, I'd expect it to." Merlin said, startling Harry. Right, Harry had forgotten he couldn't use his friend's name as an expression. "What did the troll do to you?" Merlin helped Harry to his feet again, waiting for a response.

Harry took a few seconds, blinking. "Knocked me out, obviously. Come on, we'll be late!" His own yell seemed a bit too loud in his ears.

Harry and Merlin ran into the hallway, intent on crashing the wedding in their sleepless, most-likely-concussed states.

"The wedding, boys, is by invitation only." A creepy man, that Harry realized must be this Jonas, grinned. "And you aren't invited."

Harry turned so he could speak quietly to Merlin, "Honestly? Not invited? Is that the best he could do?"

Merlin gave him a look. "Not the time." But he grinned quickly, continuing in an undertone. "Will you distract him? I need to get in."

Harry nodded. "Jonas, I sincerely hope that that was not your best joke. Not invited? Really?"

Jonas scowled, and blasted Harry into the wall. "Ow! Gosh, I've already been knocked out in the last twenty-four hours. Hey! Why don't you look at me when I'm complaining to you! It's bad enough that I missed -" Jonas finally stopped staring at him strangely, and returned to what he considered the biggest threat - Merlin, who was now unlocking the door. "Oi!" Pea Brain!" Harry said, picking up an unlit candle and throwing it at him. "Always wanted to say that." Harry smiled fondly, remembering his friend.

Jonas turned around, growling dangerously, just as Merlin stepped into the room.

Faintly, they heard the awaited words, "I now pronounce you Husband and Wife." Seeing his clear victory, Jonas grinned evilly.

"Aw crap." Harry said. Merlin panted from his run, standing in the back of the room, catching Gaius's questioning gaze. Harry looked up at the new couple and winced.

_-*-_

Harry and Merlin were in Harry's room, and Merlin was frantically pacing. "You might want to tell Arthur." Harry mentioned.

Merlin shook his head. "When it comes to important stuff, like this? He'd think I was joking. He already thought I was joking about the troll, yesterday. Why don't we both go?"

"Because that helped so much last time." Harry muttered in an undertone. "Alright. We'll go."

Merlin and Harry waked carefully slowly to Arthur's rooms. It may have been silly, but they wanted to be sure they weren't stopped. They didn't want to lose before they started.

Walking around the corner, they saw the prince with two castle guards flanking him. "Arthur! Thank goodness. I need to tell you somet- What's going on?" Merlin looked at Arthur's grave face.

Harry saw the look shared between them. Even if Merlin didn't realize, Arthur was apologizing. His jaw tightened and he said, "Guards. Arrest him."

"What?" Merlin looked honestly confused, then his face turned to one of horror. "Arthur?"

Harry winced. This wasn't good. He looked at Merlin, who was currently panicking, and gave him a conspiratorial wink.

Merlin calmed slightly, knowing what the wink meant. 'I'm here to help you, if you need it.'

"What is it Merlin's accused of doing?" Harry said lightly, trying not to let his frustration show.

"Stealing the Queens seal." Arthur said shortly.

"Seal? What does that mean? Merlin's been with me for most of the time, and he didn't have a seal." Harry said helpfully.

"Maybe that was the problem, Draco. I've barely seen my manservant for the last few days. If you hadn't been interfering with his duties, maybe he wouldn't have gotten accused." Arthur turned on him with a hard stare.

"Arthur, he was trying to help you. We both were. See, you have to believe me, and Merlin, when we tell you that your Stepmother is actually a troll."

Arthur shook his head. "Don't be ridiculous. I understood Merlin, he was being... well, Merlin. But you?"

Harry sighed. "If you believe it or not, know that she's just out for gold. I hope you don't see that too late." Harry walked away.

Harry took a winding route to Gaius's, stopping at the library briefly, chatting with Morgana to update her on recent events. Harry saw a worried Gwen walk by. "Gwen." He nodded to her. She was walking away from Gaius's. Time to go.

At the door, he could hear, "You can come out now, Merlin." Harry stepped in, just in time to see Merlin jump out of a barrel.

"Great hiding place." Harry said with a smile.

Merlin laughed, "Not so comfortable, though. And if you couldn't convince Arthur," Harry shook his head. Gaius continued, "Then we need to figure out a plan."

Harry looked with disgust at the identical bottles of green goop, unable to keep himself from remembering Polyjuice Potion.

"I cannot believe I agreed to help with this." Harry muttered.

Merlin shot a disgusted look at him, "At least you volunteered."

"Oh stop whining. We need to know if it tastes right." Gaius said.

Outside the Court Physicians chambers, Arthur ambled by, 'searching' very, very hard for his escaped manservant.

"Ah!"

"My god, that's disgusting!"

"I can't even believe you let me put that in my mouth!"

Arthur had no idea what was happening in his manservant's rooms. But frankly, he didn't want to.

Arthur soon had worse problems than what went on in Merlin's chambers. His father was taxing the people more, and Arthur had to openly defy him to keep his people from starving. Now his father decided he wasn't trustworthy enough and made Queen Catrina his heir.

Merlin, Gaius and Harry were discussing this new development in Gaius's chambers. "We have to plant the fake potion before the coronation." Merlin noted. "If I go, and Har- Draco makes sure Catrina's not in the rooms, we should be able to do it."

Gaius nodded. "As long as you two are careful."

_-*-_

The plan went on without a hitch - Harry gave Merlin a seven-minute period in which to get in, place the bottle, and get out, while he 'humbly introduced himself' to the Queen, rambling about how horrible it was that he was unconscious through her arrival and wedding, and that he was 'sure to be there' for her 'lovely coronation.'

She had smiled at him, asked his name, and ultimately forgotten what he said, walking off in a different direction.

Which was the entire point, really.

_-*-_

The coronation was an... interesting affair. Harry caught Morgana's eye when the troll screamed for the crown, and gave her a secret grin, which she returned.

Then Lady Catrina ran away, and Harry had to follow in sheer astonishment. How in the world did Uther not realize that his wife was slowly turning to a troll? Harry hid behind Morgana, (idly noticing he was tall enough to need to duck down slightly) as the creature revealed her true colours - mostly green and brown.

Morgana yelled, "Somebody help her!" And turned back to see Harry, who shook his head, grinning victoriously.

Arthur was quite distraught when his father couldn't see sense, even after the Queen was uncovered as a "stinking troll!"

Harry wished Merlin was there. Or that he had popcorn, (Which looked even more unlikely than Merlin suddenly appearing, because it probably hadn't been invented yet.)

_-*-_

An hour later, after Merlin was safely hidden in Gaius's rooms, and Harry had gotten over the asking advice of a talking-dragon part of the plan (Dragons can talk?) Harry followed the blue-eyed boys directions to the Dragon's prison.

"Hello?" Harry yelled, holding a 'Lumos' light into the dark cavern, only feeling a little silly to be calling to air.

Harry heard giant wing beats, and felt the wind it caused as the dragon lowered itself down to a convenient rock.

"Hi!" Harry yelled to it. "Merlin sent me."

The dragon looked at him questioningly. "Who are you? I have not heard of you before."

"That's funny. A talking dragon and he sounds like Olivander." Harry continued to answer his question, assuming a blank face, "I'm Lord Draco, Merlin's friend. He's currently a fugitive, so I offered to come ask for your help in his stead."

The dragon looked at him carefully. "No, that is not who you are. Don't lie to me, little sorcerer. What is your real name?"

Harry sighed. "My name is Harry. And I'd love to stay and chat, but I have to stop Uther from destroying your future. He's gone and married a troll."

"Uther has married a troll?" Harry had to wait for a minute while the dragon full-out laughed. "Was it a very public affair?"

"I was knocked out for most of it, I wouldn't know. And we have no idea how to stop it. She's back in troll-form, but Uther must've been put under a spell, because he doesn't even notice."

"What's the problem? I think it's quite amusing." The dragon chuckled again.

"Not when she's in control of Camelot when Uther dies." Harry said sharply.

"Of course, Harry, you are right. I will tell you how to get rid of her, in exchange for some information."

Harry stiffened. "What do you want to know?"

The dragon looked at Harry with unveiled interest. "You, Harry, are a mystery. I know nothing about you, and you have been friends with Emrys for many weeks. Where are you from, who are you, and what are your intentions?"

Harry sighed.

"Where I am from is a complicated question. The easy answer is Surrey, England."

"And the hard answer?" The dragon pressed.

"The twentieth century, AD."

The dragon looked shocked. "A time traveller? Oh I haven't seen one of those in a long time."

"So you've seen one?"

"Years ago, yes."

Harry pressed on excitedly, giving the Dragon a brief background on Hogwarts, then explaining the task, the potion -

"You found a random magic potion labelled 'Eyes of Emrys?' And then you drank it?" The Dragon looked at him like he was insane.

"We don't have time for this! You know enough about me to be sure I mean well for Merlin, I need to know how to fix Uther!"

The Dragon sighed. "Alright. Troll magic is very strong, and the only way currently known to break it is for the victim to cry tears of true remorse."

"Right." Harry nodded.

"How do I do that?"

_-*-_

"Uther has to cry tears of true remorse." Harry stated, closing the door with a light click.

"True remorse? About what? He's not remorseful at all!" Merlin exclaimed.

"Wait." Gaius said. "Arthur. He may not be on the best terms with his father right now, but Uther loves him more than anything else in the world."

_-*-_

"Arthur."

"Arthur!"

"Who's there?" Arthur swung his sword towards the voice below the bed.

Merlin slipped his head out from under the bed. "It's me, Merlin."

"Merlin! You came back!" Arthur lowered his sword to his side.

"I never left!" Merlin said cheerfully.

"Do you mean to say you were under there that whole time?" Arthur raised his sword threateningly, "Because if you were..."

Harry, who was standing outside the door, chuckled, faintly hearing Merlin's frantic denial. What was so scary about a Merlin under his bed? Was there something he didn't want him to hear?

Gaius gave him a look, hearing his chuckle. Then, hearing Merlin start to talk again, they walked in.

"You guys want to poison me." Arthur said blankly.

"No," Merlin said from the corner, obviously having been put to work. "Well, only temporarily."

Arthur looked at Gaius for confirmation, and Harry cut in, "Don't worry, if the antidote is supplied within a thirty-minute period, you'll be just fine." Gaius shot him an annoyed look.

"Antidote? Since when was there an antidote?"

Merlin shrugged. "I didn't think it was important. But don't worry, I've got it right here." Merlin held up the glass vial.

"Oh, that makes me so much more at ease." Arthur muttered. "If this is the only way, to get my father back in his right mind, I'll do it." Arthur continued bravely, accepting the potion/poison from Gaius, who looked quite irate at this point.

"I will go alert the king." Gaius said shortly. "Draco, you stay here and make sure the King cries. Merlin, hide, and Arthur, you should take it now." Gaius left.

"Well, wish me luck Draco." Arthur said, and drank the poison in one gulp.

He stood there, shrugging, for a few moments, then fell back, eyes rolling into his head.

Harry caught him, carefully lowering him to the ground, waiting for Uther.

When Uther ran in a half minute later, Harry was in the corner, wide eyes and frightened at the scene of the apparently suicidal prince. Uther ran to Arthur, "My son, my son! I pushed you too hard..."

Harry saw the troll Queen walk through the doors, seeing what was happening.

He quickly halted her progress with a silent stunner, making her pause for a few moments, then quickly move forward to stop the King.

But she came too late. The kings face was shining with tears, and he looked up at her with hate.

"What is this?" He muttered, horrified.

The Troll lunged at him, but was stopped by guards. Seeing that they had this in hand, Harry ran out to find Merlin.

Where was he? Harry ran across the hall, pausing at a broken vase, and saw Merlin at the bottom of some stairs.

"Harry," he called. "It's broken."

"Hurry!" Was all Harry replied, seeing him soak up the antidote with his neckerchief.

As Merlin ran to Arthur, Harry looked around, to see who had dropped the vase in the first place. "Jonas!" Harry realized.

"Draco?" Harry heard from around the corner, and a sleepy looking Morgana appeared. Right, her rooms were just around the corner. She must have heard them yelling, and come to figure out what was happening.

"Morgana! It's been an eventful night. Come see."

Harry grinned, guiding her by the hand to Arthur's chambers. When the arrived, they saw a bunch of dead guards, Arthur and Uther standing next to one another, and Merlin, off to the side, grinning wildly at the dead Troll.

"What just happened?" Morgana said faintly.

"I'll explain later." Harry said. "Look! The troll is dead!"

_-*-_

The next afternoon, after everyone took a deserved lie-in, Merlin and Arthur were walking along the hall, followed distantly by Harry and Morgana.

"So I see you had quite the hand in this." Morgana said.

"Oh, not really..." Harry said easily. "It was more Gaius and Merlin."

Morgana smiled. "Still, thank you. Otherwise we'd still have that for a queen."

Harry laughed. "She was quite a sight. I mean, she must look nice to other trolls, but the warts were kind of a turn-off."

Morgana smiled, looking slightly up to meet Harry's gaze properly. "You, Draco, are quite insane, I don't know how I stand it." She hugged him quickly, grinning widely as he hugged her back.

Harry muttered to her jokingly, "And is insanity a bad thing? I've not gone sane, have I? Tell me I'm still normal! Please, Morgana, save me!" He said, pretending to be terrified.

Morgana held him at arms length. "No," She looked at him mock-inquisitively, looking for Harry's sanity, "No sanity anywhere, but I'll admit, you've gotten along quite well without it."

On the other end of the hall, Harry saw Merlin try to hug Arthur, and watched as Arthur stepped back, horrified. He snorted lightly, pointing it out to Morgana.

She chuckled, watching them lower their arms in unison.

"Alright, you may not be sane, but I can at least count on your lack of stupidity. They look ridiculous."

Harry and Morgana walked away from the pair, arms linked and laughing madly.

**Chapter Word Count: 4264**

_**Thanks for Reading!**__**  
**__**SH**_


	5. Chapter 5: The Witch and Wizard finder

**Chapter 5: The Witch (And Wizard) Finder**

**Disclaimer: Am I bothered, though?**

**Summary: Harry gets caught in the Witchfinder business, helps Merlin, and says his goodbyes to Camelot and its inhabitants. **

Harry was in the market, searching for a shirt that would look acceptable for when he got back. He had to return soon, no matter how he loved the castle, the people... He had to think of going home. That was when he heard the whispers.

"...Witchfinder..."

"... Cast the magic out!"

"-Think he'll truly find...?"

Harry abandoned his search and walked swiftly to Gaius's chambers.

"Hello Gaius." Harry said gravely.

Gaius 'hmmed' slightly, and turned away from his potions.

"You've heard, then. About the Witchfinder. Aradian."

Harry absently picked at some leaves, saying, "Whispers, really. I thought it would be prudent to talk to you."

Gaius nodded. "Aradian has spent his life fighting against magic, finding sorcerers everywhere and putting them to death. King Uther heard of some foolish person casting a spell on smoke to make it look like a horse, and decided to call for him."

Harry drawled back, "I can only imagine who that would be. Well, it's good that I don't know of any witches. I mean, witch seems like a pretty mean word. If I knew a witch, I'd at least call her a sorceress."

Gaius gave him a sharp look. 'Oh, fine.' Harry thought. 'Gaius could never take a joke.'

"Indeed, very lucky."

Harry sat down on a stool, looking at Gaius's potion-making.

"You need any help? I can chop ingredients or something."  
Gaius smiled. "Thank you, Draco." He looked past him to the doorway, "I am pleased someone wants to aid the subtle art of potion making."

Harry nearly choked. Something about that sentence was just wrong coming from Gaius. Oh yes, he wasn't a greasy bat with a grudge. Harry wondered how he'd be able to deal with Snape now, after getting legitimate knowledge from Gaius, who (despite Merlin's denials and warnings) had made potion-making much more interesting. At least he had his magic now firmly in check. He shuddered to think what Snape or Malfoy would say to him having 'accidental magic.'

"Please, chop these up into centimeter circles." Gaius pushed some reed-looking things his way.

Harry grabbed a knife and quickly  
started chopping them, making perfect prices. 'I guess the Dursleys and four years of Potions classes were good for something.' Harry thought.

"You're very good at that." Merlin said questioningly.

"Yeah, got in the habit. For a while, I lived in a village with my aunt, my... Grandfather thought it would be the best place at the time, when Marvolo had more power. I was in charge of most meals. Well, it was that or eat Aunt Cissy's cooking." Harry said with a wince, now that he was back in the Hogwarts state of mind, using Narcissa's nickname as a cover was a bit disturbing.

Harry shot a glance at Merlin, intending to tell him later. It wasn't that he didn't trust Gaius, but the less the old man knew, it seemed, the happier he was. Harry was sure Gaius had figured some of it out - It was obvious he knew about Harry's magic, but he didn't know what Gaius would make of it. Merlin... well, Merlin was less perceptive. He took his story more at face value than Gaius would.

Harry and Merlin were in Harry's rooms, Harry had explained more of his upbringing, and the atmosphere was much more sober than normal.

Merlin was the first to speak, breaking the silence. "I don't know if you've heard, but the Witchfinder is coming tonight. He's said to be able to detect magic from a mile away, and we really can't risk that."

Harry nodded seriously. "You're right." He paused, then said, "But Merlin, a guilty look could do as much harm as doing magic in front of him."

Harry quickly berated himself, realizing that asking Merlin to Not Look Guilty was practically an order to do so.

Harry didn't know how this Witchfinder worked. Back at Hogwarts, the only way to know if magic was there was to see it affect something or to check the wand of the person that did it. He had his suspicions of that since the get-go, and was somewhat concerned that this guy had a gift he'd never heard of.

Harry was talking to Morgana, when she was called in for questioning, herself.

Morgana nodded, looking around the corner nervously. "Oh yes, very. I do hope he is found soon."

Harry, thinking of his earlier joke, said, "Who says it's a he? He calls himself a Witchfinder, we have to consider it actually being a witch."

Morgana blanched, but schooled her expression and smiled at Harry, realizing he had joked for her benefit. "That's true, yes."

A voice came from down the hallway.

"Very perceptive. Magic can come in any shape, any form. It lurks behind corners, in shadows, in people we thought we knew. Very knowledgeable, boy. Who are you?"

Harry turned smoothly, stating, "Lord Draco, sir. I, too, know what you speak. A sorcerer, Marvolo, from my homeland killed my mother. He is after me as well, and that is a part of why I am here." He inclined his head respectfully, snarling at the man internally. 'I bet he goes around and sees who looks guilty enough for him, then drags them off to be questioned. He'd just better hope he finds Morgana innocent.' Morgana was looking at him, slightly awed at his smooth lie.

"Of course, Lord Draco. And you must be the Lady Morgana. If you wouldn't mind, My Lady, I would like a few words."

Harry stared blankly as Morgana walked away, only smiling reassuringly when she looked back at him, fear etched on her face. Harry mouthed, "It doesn't exist." to her, glad when her face relaxed a bit, remembering his advice.

_-*-_

Sometimes, Harry hated it when he was right.

Harry had been spending his time in his chambers, working out when the best time would be to 'return home.' If Merlin was the sorcerer that was caught, Harry could 'admit' to being the one who did the magic, and leave right after.

But then he couldn't return.

"Draco, you won't believe this! They got Gaius thrown in jail, and 'found' a bracelet in our rooms! But it wasn't even him, he had never seen it before and neither have I! And he's going to be killed!"

Harry walked quickly to the doors, muttering a widespread "obliviate" to the surrounding corridor, (just in case) then closing the doors, and locking them with a click.

"What are you going to do?" Harry said quietly.

"I don't know what I can do! The King won't listen to a servant, but the evidence in our rooms? He planted it, I know he did."

Harry turned, a grin spreading across his face. "I had my suspicions. He's been acting suspicious enough - and the overly dramatic attitude? It's bonkers. I have an idea. See, Uther'll listen to me, now that he's realized I had helped with taking down Catrina. If you can search his rooms, see if there's anything... If we can be sure he's not there. And then..."

"If we can't find anything, we'll just plant it! And-"  
"And I'll make sure he doesn't try for Morgana or you, too."  
There was a knock at the door. "Lord Draco? The Witchfinder requests your presence."

Harry walked calmly to the room Aradian recently claimed for questioning (something about not wanting sorcerers to be where he slept.) Harry wasn't about to give anything away. 'Time for the Inner Slytherin to come out, Harry.' He thought to himself, then snorted. 'Who am I kidding? My Slytherin has been more alive than Gryffindor for the last four weeks.'

"Aradian. I hear you wished to speak to me." Harry said, walking into the room.

"Ah, yes." The man dipped a quill into a skull full of ink. 'Over-dramatic idiot.' "Lord Draco. How long have you been staying at Camelot?"

"Just a short time." Harry said, examining an object on the table in front of where he was sitting.

"And how did you arrive here?"

Harry smoothly replied, "I simply found myself on the floor in the castle, were before I was in my bed in mine."

Aradian looked up sharply. "You just... appeared. By magic?"

Harry nodded, looking a bit scared, "I told you, before, about the Sorcerer Marvolo, the one attacking my Kingdom. I can only assume I was transported here by him."

"A magician transported you from your kingdom? Wouldn't that take an extreme amount of power?" Aradian looked questioningly, playing with his quill.

"I dunno," Harry shrugged. "I doubt I know more of magic than you, one who has been fighting it all his life."

"Of course. I do wonder, however. I have been to a great many places, perhaps I can locate your Kingdom?"

Harry looked up hopefully. "That would be brilliant! My Kingdom is called Scotland, ruled by," He paused for the slightest moment, "King Albus."

Aradian looked at him hard. "No, I have not heard of it. You may leave, Draco."

Harry nodded and turned, and almost scoffed when Aradian tacked on the stereotypical, "For now."

Back in Harry's rooms, Harry noticed Merlin leafing through a half-finished magic book. "Merlin, that's mine!" Harry said defensively. That held all of his notes on what he could and could not do, and his plan to travel back through time.

"I thought so, and it looks brilliant, but you have to hide it." Merlin said matter-of-factly. "I'll not have you in jail for something you actually did. Three 'witnesses' have already come forward, claiming to have seen magic being done. It's obviously fake."

"I thought you were looking at Aradians rooms, did you find anything?" Harry asked.

"Oh, I looked through his drawers and I found these flowers. Any idea what they are?" Merlin remembered, holding them out. When Harry took them, he used the opportunity to take the book, looking around for a suitable hiding place.

Harry rolled his eyes and cast a notice-me-not charm on it. Merlin dropped it, then looked confused. "What did you just do?" He seemed to be squinting through the charm, seeing something on the floor.

"I put a notice-me-not charm on my book." Merlin's eyes lit up, overcoming the spell and he picked it up again. "You're the only one who'll notice it. It's fine. And these flowers? If my classes at school and with Gaius are right, that's Belladonna. I don't really know what it's used for, but it causes mild hallucinations in large amounts. Is there anyone else you can ask? Maybe people have bought something with it."

"I don't know. But I know someone who may." Merlin grinned and ran out.

"Gwen's figured it out! She said it'll be in beauty products! That's why all the people were women! We found a man who sells a belladonna tincture, and he'll testify to the King!"

Harry thought for a moment. "Merlin, if there was only a bit of Belladonna, that might not be enough evidence. If Uther trusts this guy..."

Merlin grinned. "Leave that to me."

Harry stayed in the background, when they went to the King that afternoon with their information. He, of course, refused to believe that his Witchfinder was a fraud.

Harry listened with a smile on his face. It made it easy to decide, Merlin handled it perfectly by himself. Well, almost. Harry only cut in after Merlin said, "So you don't mind if we search your chambers?"

"No, it's a good question." Harry said, and was echoed by Arthur. His son and a noble guest's vouching for him must have convinced Uther, because he

He maintained his shadowing of Merlin through the searching of the Witchfinder's rooms, barely keeping in his laughter as Merlin's planted evidence was discovered. He nearly had to step outside to avoid doubling over, when the toad came out of Aradian's mouth.

Harry grinned when Gaius was released, and looked happily on as Gaius and Merlin walked away. This was a good time to go, when everything was good and everyone was happy. It made for a good last memory of the place he found himself calling his second home.

Morgana walked up to him, "You're leaving, aren't you." She said.

Harry nodded.

"When?"

"Soon." Harry said blankly, looking straight forward.

Morgana stepped into his line of vision, walking right up to him. "Draco..." She said. Harry looked down a her, as she continued, "What am I supposed to do, without you? I don't know how to control my magic, I can't -" She cut off, looking at him sadly. "I know you have to go home. But... where is home? Do you know where you're going?"

Harry nodded. "To the north. Way to the north."

Morgana stepped closer. "I'm going to miss you. You'll come back?"

"When I can, I promise. I'm coming back."

Morgana stepped up to him, sadness in her eyes. Harry said sincerely, "I'll miss you." And leaned in closer.

Their faces were inches away, Harry could see the tears sparkling in her green eyes. "You're a good friend, Morgana. I won't - "

Harry turned, seeing a stony faced Arthur. He turned back to Morgana, who gave him a quick, fierce hug. She whispered, "Goodbye," in his ear.

Looking nervously at Arthur, she ran off.

Harry turned to the Prince, a slight grimace on his face. Goodbyes were difficult.

"So you've found your kingdom?" Arthur said, glaring at him slightly for some unfathomable reason.

"Yes, well, I found a landmark that I can find home from. I hope you'll excuse my lack of warning, but now that I know where I'm going I can't delay any longer. My father will be concerned, he may even think Marvolo killed me."

"Of course," Arthur said, clapping a hand on Harry's shoulder. "I bid you farewell, Lord Draco, and I hope you reach your kingdom without trial."

Harry nodded gratefully. "Do you think... maybe you could inform the King? I have a long journey ahead, and there are few people who would let me go quickly if I gave them the chance to say goodbye."

Arthur nodded. "Of course. Good luck. But Draco," He held Harry's attention with his seriousness, "If and when you return, I want you to know that I am prepared to kill you, if you hurt Morgana in any way."

Harry nodded. He'd expected no less. "Thank you." Arthur was a bit confused by his reply, so Harry continued. "I know you're looking after her." Was all he said. Arthur nodded in understanding, and walked away.

Harry gathered his things. It was strange, how much he had accumulated over the short weeks he was here. He had his own - untested, unfortunately - broom, although he was pretty sure it would work. He had his magic book, a few things from Merlin, some herbs he had picked keeping Merlin company, (Those were interesting, he would have to see what they were called in the future,) a sword and sheath Arthur had insisted he get upon realizing he had none, and a bundle of clothing, all stuffed in a bag.

He knew he had to make his way out of the castle before leaving - if something went wrong, or they realized he had left with magic, it could put Morgana and Merlin in a spot of trouble.

Walking out to the gate, Harry heard someone, two someone's, running to catch him. He turned, and saw Merlin and Morgana.

"Come on, you weren't going to leave without saying goodbye?" Merlin said with a grin.

"Wouldn't dream of it. Merlin, I want to thank you for all you've done for me." He flicked his eyes at Morgana, and Merlin nodded knowingly.

"And I you. I hope someday you can return to Camelot, you're a good friend." Merlin said solemnly.

"Oh, I've promised I will return. Don't think I've forgotten our oath. Maybe," He tilted his head at Morgana, who was standing a few feet behind Merlin, "I'll come back in the summer. If I can convince my father to let me come, of course." He hugged Merlin easily, his friend returning it with a grin.

"I can't wait. Goodbye, Lord Draco."

"Goodbye, Merlin." Harry said, but then he saw Morgana, whose face lit up at his promise. Harry looked at her, smiling sadly, and Merlin backed away with an oddly sly grin.

In Harry's mind, he heard, 'Goodbye, Harry Potter.' Harry nodded, and knew Merlin saw it.

"I knew you were leaving," Morgana walked up to him carefully, "But I couldn't help but say one last goodbye. It was my hope," She held out a piece of expertly woven dark brown cloth, outlined with a slim, twisting green vine that, upon close inspection, would prove to spell 'Morgana.' "That you would wear this. I created it myself." She chose her words carefully, smirking to show Harry that 'Created' was definitely 'magicked.'

"I wouldn't want to crush your hopes." Harry said a bit jokingly, but continued easily, "Of course I'll wear it!"

Morgana smiled brilliantly, and motioned for Harry to hold out his wrist. She tied it tightly, so it made a tight bracelet.

Harry smiled. "Thank you. Let me..." His eyes shone gold, and the fabric closed on itself, creating an unbroken circle. At least he wouldn't have to worry about it falling off.

"Goodbye, Draco." Morgana said, tears forming in her eyes at his motion.

"Not for forever. I'll see you again, as soon as I can come." Harry grinned, and walked away with a wave, disappearing into the trees.

_-*

Once Harry had gone a good distance from the castle, he dug his book out of his bag, and flipped to the pages he had painstakingly created a spell on.

"Reddo Temporis" Harry said, gripping his bag as the gold filled his eyes.

Harry was distantly aware of movement, the feeling of being lifted up high... higher than Gryffindor tower, and speeding forward, both through space and through time. The best comparison was the time turner the year before, but it didn't compare at all to the worse-than-Floo dizziness.

With a thump, Harry landed in the warm, familiar room he recognized as his dorm, right into someone's outstretched arms.

**AN: So Harry's time in Camelot is over. But don't worry! He'll be back.**

**Chapter Word Count: 3000 **

_**Thanks for Reading! **_

_**SH**_


	6. Chapter 6: Get Back to Hogwarts

**Disclaimer: As you wish.**

**Summary: Harry returns to Hogwarts, gets back in the swing of things, gets into some trouble and ultimately worries people.**

Ron Weasley was concerned. Harry had been missing for hours, and he and Hermione had physically searched the entire castle, including using the Marauder's Map.

They met up in the boys dorm. Standing next to Harry's bed, Ron stretched his arms out and said, "I just don't know where he could be."

Harry fell straight into Ron's arms, startling him into dropping his wayward friend.

"Ow!" Harry exclaimed, looking up at the person who dropped him. "Ron! Come on, I would have had a soft landing for once!"

Ron and Hermione stared.

"Sorry. What's happening?" Harry said. "Is there something wrong?"

Hermione looked at him. "Where have you been? We've been searching for hours!"

"Oh, only hours? That's good. I thought I was gone longer, the way you were staring."

"Gone?" Hermione squeaked. "Gone where? And what are you wearing?"

Harry grimaced, realizing he was wearing his leather jacket, blue shirt (with Morgana bracelet) trousers and boots. For a brief moment, his mind raced ahead, creating situations in which he could lie, but gave up immediately. "I was in Camelot."

"Right," Ron laughed. "And I bet you met Merlin, Lord Draco and King Arthur too!"

Harry looked quizzically at his friend. "L-lord Draco?"

"Oh Harry, don't you ever listen in class?" Hermione moaned. "Lord Draco was a close friend of both Merlin and King Arthur..." Hermione looked at Harry's carefully blank face, and rolled her eyes. "Honestly, don't you remember anything about Lord Draco and Lady Morgana? How Draco got a near-fatal wound, and Morgana healed him? And that blossomed into -"

"Morgana?" Harry said incredulously, that wasn't right! Gaius had healed him. Now that Harry was thinking about it, the scar on his arm hurt. "Ah, my scar hurts." Harry muttered.

Hermione heard his mumble, and spoke concernedly, "Harry if your scar hurts you should go to Professor Dumbledore anyway."

"Oh no, not that scar. The scar on my arm." He said.

"What scar? You don't have a scar on your arm!" Ron interjected.

"I do now, see?" He took his leather jacket off so he could pull his sleeve up. A crescent shaped faintly pink line shone on his skin, where the bandit had hit him.

Hermione gasped, staring at Harry for a moment. "Oh my. You're Lord Draco." She said faintly.

"Don't be thick, Mione, how could he be Lord Draco?" Ron said.

"You're the one being thick, look at his scar!" Hermione motioned frantically to Harry's arm.

"Merlin's beard! He is Lord Draco! But that means -"

"Ron!" Hermione screamed. "You can't say anything else. Harry, what was the last thing you did before leaving Camelot?"

Harry blinked. "I... I said goodbye to Morgana, she gave me a bracelet." He held up the thin fabric magicked into a circle, showing it to his friends.

"Alright. What did you say to her?" Hermione waved off his words.

"Just that I promised I'd come back in the summer."

Ron sniggered, and Hermione elbowed him in the stomach. "Alright. So you plan on going back." She shot Ron a meaningful look, and he quickly schooled his face into something resembling seriousness. "What about your magic, Harry?" Hermione pressed on.

"Oh, Merlin taught me how to control it. I can almost do whatever I could before the potion, and then some."

Ron gaped, "Merlin taught you?"

Harry nodded. "I actually taught him some things too. And he was nothing like the stories I've heard."

"Merlin's beard..." Ron trailed off.

"He didn't have a beard, Ron. In fact, he looked about sixteen." Harry grinned, walking down to the common room. "What day is it?" Harry changed the subject.

"Sunday, Seven-thirty. We need to be down to dinner soon, and don't think you're getting out of explaining things, Harry!" Hermione said sharply.

Harry sighed. It was no use, Hermione would nag him until he told her everything. Harry stayed silent until they were situated at the Gryffindor table, and Harry wolfed down food at a speed almost rivaling Ron's.

"Sorry," he said between bites, "I've missed Hogwarts food. You don't realize how wonderful it is until you've got to live on bread and questionable meats."

Hermione made a face. "So tell us about Camelot." Ron said.

Harry grinned suddenly, remembering what he wanted to tell them. "Well, King Uther, Arthur's father, banned magic from the realm. Merlin is actually Arthur's manservant, and Morgana is the Kings ward. You know Guinevere?" Harry said with a sly smile.

"Queen Guinevere? What about her?" Ron said through some mashed potatoes.

"She's not queen. She's not even a Lady. She's Lady Morgana's maidservant." Harry cackled.

"You're joking!" Ron said.

"Harry, you can't be serious. I've read countless books on the subject, Guinevere is always Queen."

Harry shrugged. "Arthur seems pretty friendly with her. Maybe she becomes Queen."

Hermione's eyes widened. "Oh, I shouldn't have told you that. I'm such an idiot! You can't know anything about it!" She whispered fiercely.

Harry looked puzzled. "Why can't I know anything about it?"

Hermione rolled her eyes. "It's the same as knowing the future before it happens, isn't it?" Harry frowned confusedly, prompting Hermione to continue, "If you know what happens in the future - or in the past, in this case - you could affect it or even change it!"

Harry shook his head. "But... I already knew the past when I went there, and it changed by the time I came back. No one mentioned Lord Draco before I left. He just didn't exist."

Hermione looked at him, exasperated. "Exactly. Now that Lord Draco exists, and everyone knows his history, we can't tell you! That'd be like telling someone what decisions they make! It never works. If you know you're going to do something, and if you don't like it, you'll change it. That'd create a paradox."

Harry shook his head. "I don't think its quite the same as what you're used to. I changed the past, and everything's still fine!"

Hermione argued, "There's a difference between world timeline and personal timeline! Even if it's not true, this is legend! You can't know your future. Harry, I know you'd like to know, but you can't know your personal future! It's not done. It can't be done. I don't know how else to explain it to you..."

"It's alright, Mione. I get it." Harry calmed her. It might be cool to know what happened in the future, but Harry remembered being trapped by the future they knew during the whole time-turner deal. He could have done whatever he needed to - but he already lived through it, and he knew how it ended. He wanted to do whatever he did - will do - without being trapped by what he knows happened.

"So you won't try to look for information on it?" Hermione pressed.

"I promise, I won't." Harry swore.

"Good." She nodded her head happily.

Ron looked at the two incredulously, speaking through his biscuits, "Wha' just 'appened?"

Hermione just shook her head.

It was interesting to go to classes again. Fortunately, Hermione had made him do his homework before the task, so he was still on track. Sitting through Flitwick's, McGonagall's, and especially Snape's classes were a laugh.

"The trick is to move your wands in a short flick to the right, and say 'Arborem!' McGonagall said sharply, two Thursdays later.

The rock on her desk grew into a miniature tree, waving in a unknown wind.

Hearing her tell them to practice it themselves, Harry shared a look with Ron and held his wand in the air. With a wave of his wand, he said "Arborem!"

Nothing happened. Harry leaned over the hand-sized rock, and whispered with a flick of his hand, "Arborem."

Immediately, Harry backed away. He, Ron and Hermione were sitting in the very back corner, and they ran to the front of the room when Harry's miniature tree became not so mini.

McGonagall walked over to the three of them, asking, "What happened, Mr. Potter, Miss. Granger, Mr. Weasley?"

"''Fraid it's my fault." Harry grimaced. "I dunno what I did, but my tree turned too large."

Professor McGonagall pursed her lips, waving her wand to banish the tree. It wouldn't leave. She went up to touch the tree, and recoiled. The students could see a spark appear where she touched it.

"Mr. Potter." She said quietly. "Stay behind. Class is dismissed!" She said for the class to hear.

"Mr. Potter," McGonagall said once the door had closed, a worried Ron and Hermione finally being signaled to leave him, "Have you any idea what it is you have done to this rock?"

Harry shook his head. "I thought I was doing it right..." he mumbled.

"It was not intentional, then, and I cannot punish you for a mistake, do not be worried." Harry released a breath he didn't realize he was holding. "Although, I do hope you can remove it. I would prefer not to have an oak tree decorating my classroom any longer than necessary. Perhaps you attuned it to your magic. You know how to banish?"

Harry nodded. It was something he had learned after the first task, in Charms class. But he still hasn't used a wand, and he didn't know if he could pretend to cast with his wand and cast without. It wasn't the best opportunity to try, but try he would.

"Depulso!" Harry cried, trying to channel the magic through his left arm, instead of his right. The tree stayed stubbornly put.

Harry thought for a moment. If the tree had shocked Professor McGonagall, he wondered what it would do to him. He reached out and touched a leaf. The leaf sparkled, golden mist swirling around it.

Harry groaned. "You may go, Mr. Potter." McGonagall said calmly. Harry obligingly left, but as he shut the door he was sure he heard the sound of rushing feet.

Harry tucked his wand in his robe pocket. What had made his magic do that? He had practiced countless normal spells wandlessly, and they had all worked! Harry frowned, and picked up a loose pebble. He stepped into the same corridor he and Hermione had stopped in before he left - the shattered glass was still lying there, which he carelessly banished - and cast the spell again, "Arborem."

The pebble grew into a willow tree, covering half of the corridor. In fact, the roots melded into the rock, making it unmovable. "Great."

What if he tried simply conjuring it? Maybe if he focused on what he wanted and didn't have anything to make it grow from, it would be just as he wanted it.

He walked farther down the corridor and made his eyes flash gold. The result was a small apple tree, complete with ripe apples.

No, it was supposed to be a seedling! Harry walked to the end of the corridor, eyes again flashing gold as a miniature tree appeared. Harry smiled triumphantly, picking his successful plant up. When Harry looked closer, however, he saw that it was a fully grown, white tree with tiny leaves all over it. Harry tucked the partially successful tree in his pocket regardless - if they were working on them again next class, he could present this as a less permanent result. Harry wondered how McGonagall was going to deal with having a tree in her room.

Speaking of unwanted trees, Harry had two in this corridor. Sure, the only people who knew this were the Marauders, Ron, Hermione, Fred and George...

Harry had an idea. He was normally with his two year mates, or he could warn them against using this corridor, but Fred and George didn't need to know that. With a thought, the floor sprouted bright green grass, and the walls and ceiling enchanted like the Great Hall - it showed a bright, sunny day, and even showed a few birds flying high overhead. Harry smirked. It was fun to be able to do enchantments like that. He knew Merlin couldn't, but that was probably just because he'd never seen it before.

He covered the two doors with vines, and stepped out into the normal hallway, blinking slightly when he adjusted to being 'inside' again.

Despite his newfound problems with his magic, Harry still had opportunities for fun in Potions.

The first time Harry deliberately changed a potion from the directions on the board, Professor Snape loomed a bit away from his desk, waiting for it to explode... but it didn't. This potion was one he had read about from Gaius, and he knew the directions he used...

"Potter! Why are you deviating from the instructions?" Snape yelled, expecting the next ingredient to make it explode...

Harry tossed the roots in and the potion turned a pale yellow.

Snape scowled. "Why are you using different instructions?"

"Sorry, sir. I read it in a book somewhere, I hadn't realized it was different." Harry said respectfully. He had spent enough time in the presence of a king to keep from angering arrogant people in power. But still, his pale yellow next to Malfoy's peach was way too satisfying.

Harry had fun in the time leading up to March, but nor was he idle. He tried out his new broom, (which didn't work quite as wonderfully as he expected, but he was working on it,) he worked on homework, finishing it within a few days of receiving it so he could focus on other things (Hermione was extremely pleased, and had begun to think that Camelot was the best thing that had happened to Harry.)

He also had to work on his wand problem. It puzzled him for around a week, before he decided to simply make a non-magical copy of it to use for class, deciding it was the best solution until he had a free weekend for Hermione to help with it.

Harry was so preoccupied, he was caught completely by surprise when Sirius's return owl came on the fifth. 'Be at stile at end of road outside of Hogsmeade (Past Dervish and Bangs) at two o'clock on Saturday afternoon. Bring as much food as you can.' It read.

"He's come back to Hogsmeade?" said Ron incredulously.

"It looks like it, doesn't it?" Hermione said.

"If I'm remembering right," Harry said thoughtfully, "He asked for the Hogsmeade date, didn't he?"

Hermione nodded. "Of course!"

"Well, I guess we'll just have to go. I have an idea for the food..."

"There they are!" Pansy Parkinson squealed in delight. "There they are! Show them!" She looked around, but Malfoy had stepped forward.

"Look at this!" The blond cried with a vicious grin. A small circle of people started gathering around the group.

"Draco," Harry said loudly, and it got moderately quieter. Since when had Potter called Malfoy by his given name? "Why in the world are you holding a Witch Weekly magazine?"

Draco scowled, as people streaming out of the great hall heard Harry's comment and sniggered, joining the crowd.

"You just wait, Potter, till you read this article!" The blond boy thrust the magazine at him.

"Thank you, Draco, but I don't think I want to read," He peeked at the magazine cover, grimacing slightly, "Face and Hair care articles. Not to say I'm judging, of course. I'm just not interested. I do appreciate your offer, though."

Draco scowled, thrust the magazine at Hermione and stalked off.

Ron turned to Harry, "Mate that was bloody brilliant!" He grinned.

Harry smirked lightly. "Come on, let's get to class."

_-*-_

Potions class wasn't enjoyable on any occasion (When taught by Snape, of course) but Double potions that Friday was reminiscent of Harry's pre-Camelot classes.

Harry was talking idly to Ron and Hermione, chopping some reeds for a potion, when Snape billowed over, sneering at the three of them.

"I suppose you think this is a social hour?" Snape scowled. "Perhaps you will be quieter if separated. Weasley, by Mr. Goyle. Granger, next to Miss. Parkinson. Potter, to the front. Now."

Harry whistled slightly as he walked up to the front, no reason to let Snape think he'd gotten to him. And what were a few hours sitting at the front of the class, anyway?

"... Don't care that half the world thinks your a pint-sized celebrity. I know you're just an attention seeking brat..."

Harry ground his beetles, annoyed. How long was Snape going to drone on? Harry decided to pretend he couldn't hear.

"... Can't help but wonder what has been happening. All these feats of magic in hidden hallways, and of course your solution at the second task, stolen boomslang skin,"

"Hang on, what?" Harry said confusedly. Boomslang skin? Last time he had heard of that, Hermione had stolen it second year. But why would he bring it up now, two years later? Harry couldn't deny Snape was clever, but how had he connected him to the hidden hallway?

"You know what I said." The Professor put his hand in his pocket, and Harry instinctively raised his hand in case he was grabbing his wand, but no. It was a small potions vial, with clear liquid inside. "Do you know what this is?" He said, voice lowered dangerously.

"No." said Harry.

"It is a truth serum. Odorless, tasteless, blends into any liquid, and three drops will have you telling me everything I ask for. Of course," He examined the vial thoughtfully, "It's use is heavily mandated by the Ministry, but I think you'll find that my hand slips," The vial dropped into his other hand, "Right into your evening pumpkin juice. Next time you try anything, I'd watch out."

"Right." Harry said, outwardly calm. "Next time I want to enchant a secret hallway, I'll be sure to remember that." He tipped his ginger roots into the cauldron. just as a knock came at the door.

"Come in," Snape said in his usual voice.

The class stopped as the door opened. Professor Karkaroff walked in nervously.

"I need to talk to you, Severus." He said, scanning the room and making the class avert their eyes quickly.

"After my lesson."

"No," Karkaroff said, determined. "Not when you can slip off. You've been avoiding me, Severus, and I need to talk now."

"After the lesson." Snape snapped.

Under the pretext of holding up a measuring cup filled with armadillo bile, Harry glanced at them. Snape looked angry, and Karkaroff scared. At the end of class, Harry knocked over his armadillo bile, ducked down and spent an inordinate amount of time cleaning it up.

"What is so urgent?" Snape hissed.

"This," Karkaroff showed Snape something, and Harry heard the rustle of robes being pulled aside.

"Put it away!" Snape said, as Karkaroff spoke.

"Don't you see? It's never been this clear. Not since-"

"Put. It. Away."

"But-"

"We can discuss this later." Snape peered at the classroom. "Potter! What are you doing?"

"I spilled some armadillo bile, sir." Harry magicked the rest of the bile back into his container - no reason for it to go to waste - and walked out of class. This was an interesting development.

On Saturday morning, Harry ran down to the kitchens before they headed to Hogsmeade.

"Hey Dobby!" Harry said loudly over the scrambling house elves. "I need your help!"

"Dobby is happy to serve Harry Potter sir. What is you needing helping with?"

"I was wondering if you could pack a very large amount of food in a very small amount of space. Three of my friends and I wanted to have a picnic..."

Harry rejoined Ron and Hermione and headed down to the gate. "Harry," Hermione said. "Why don't you have any food with you?"

Harry grinned. "Don't worry, it'll be there."

Hermione pursed her lips, but didn't say anything.

"Hey, mate, can we stop at Zonkos?" Ron asked suddenly.

"Sure," Harry looked up, "we've got thirty minutes or so."

"How can you tell?" Hermione said, checking her watch and realizing that it was, indeed, half past one.

"It was a skill Merlin taught me," Harry said as they stopped at the store. "He seemed incredulous that I couldn't tell the time of day from the sun, but I told him I always used magic for it."

Hermione nodded. That made sense. "Why didn't he use magic for it?" Ron looked confused.

"Two reasons I can think of," Harry said, "One, is that clocks hadn't been invented, and two, if you recall, Merlin could never do magic openly because it was banned. We got ourselves into quite a bit of trouble because of that."

"Oh." Ron said, almost sadly. "Can I come with you, when you go back?"

"That'd be brilliant!" Harry grinned.

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "How would that ever be a good idea?"

"Come on," Ron said, "It'd be fun!" Harry nodded encouragingly.

"Have you two completely lost your minds?" Hermione looked at them desperately. "Please tell me you considered - at least for a moment - how completely and utterly disastrous that could be!"

"Er..." Harry and Ron looked at one another.

"It's completely dangerous! Ron'd need to side-along with you, and I'm not even sure you can do that. Also, if Ron wanted to do any magic, he'd have to carry his wand around, and if that doesn't get you both killed he'll probably run his mouth and do it anyway!"

"Thanks for the vote of confidence, Hermione." Ron scowled.

"I'm sorry, but unless you took the potion too - and don't even try to tell me that's a good idea - Its way too risky. If I could, I would keep Harry going back too, but..."

Harry noticed her hesitation, and saved her, "We've got to meet up with Padfoot!"

The trio arrived five minutes till, Ron whining about lost opportunities and dungbombs, do Harry had time to unpack his picnic basket, complete with white and red checkered blanket (Harry shook his head slightly at Dobby.)

He laid his miniature food and blanket down, pretending not to notice his friends bewildered expressions. With a flicker of his eyes, the food grew until it reached it's original size.

As if on cue, a big, black dog padded into the cave, following the smell of steaming chicken and rice.

"That looks delicious." Sirius said, transforming quickly.

Harry grinned. "Help yourself."

With that out of the way, Sirius dug in. After about five straight minutes, he finally stopped.

"Hogwarts food!" Sirius groaned in delight, looking at the mostly full plates.

Harry nodded. "It's just that much better after you've not had it." Sirius's eyebrows shot up, but he didn't say anything. Harry continued, "What are you doing here?"

Sirius paused for a moment, then smiled, "Fulfilling my duty as godfather. What's been happening, Harry?"

Hermione, Ron and Harry looked at one another. "Well..." Harry started.

**Chapter Word Count: 3747****  
****Also, some of this chapter is made up of quotes from "Padfoot Returns", HPGoF. If you notice something from the Books that's wrong, I would appreciate it if you would point it out!**


	7. Chapter 7: An Uncanny Canon

**Chapter 7: An Uncanny Canon**

**Summary: Harry finishes his fourth year at Hogwarts**

"- You've been to Camelot."

Harry nodded.

"You have trained under the most famous wizard of all time!"

Harry shrugged.

"You've travelled back in time, and changed history!" Sirius screamed.

"Yep." Harry grinned.

Seeing his godfather brought Harry a bit more down to earth. It reminded him of the Triwizard tournament, and Karkaroff and the Death Eaters. Harry tried not to show it in the following weeks, but he was sure Hermione, at least, noticed. Harry missed Camelot.

She didn't dwell on it, however, because she had found the Witch Weekly article that Malfoy had thrown at her. "Harry Potter's Secret Heartache" was all Harry saw before the fuming witch tossed it into the fire.

"A maze?" Harry said incredulously.

"Correct, Harry!" Bagman said cheerfully. "Although, I think this one will be a bit more challenging than a simple hedge maze.

"But on the Quiddich pitch!" Cedric said sadly. Harry nodded, slightly disturbed by the plants on his pitch. Krum didn't look too pleased, either.

"Right... Well it'll be gone by next year." Bagman assured uncomfortably. "Anyway, you will have to go through this maze, facing unknown dangers, and the first to reach the cup, in the centre of the maze, will win the tournament."

"Zo ze points made no deefrence?" Fleur asked, confused.

"Oh no, they make a difference." Bagman denied. The points you have determine the time you go in. Harry will go in first, then Cedric, then Krum and Fleur. You might want to brush up on your spells. Good luck!"

Harry started walking off, but someone grabbed his arm.

Harry spun around, swinging a hand up in defence. The only think keeping him from blasting whoever it was back was the instinct Don't-Do-Magic that was drilled into him in Camelot. He was glad for it when he saw that it was only Krum standing there, empty handed.

"May I speak vith you, Potter?" He said.

"Sure. What about?" Harry said.

"Not here." Victor said, and led an impatient Harry to the edge of the forbidden forest. "I vas vondering, Potter, what your relationship vith 'Ermey-one vas. I see you two very often, and I do vish to understand..."

Harry nodded, "Don't worry, Hermione and I are just friends. I really, really, don't have any interest in her." He looked a bit disgusted at the thought, which helped convince him.

For the second time that day, Harry felt a hand on his shoulder, and spun around wildly, hands outstretched. He saw the haggard figure of Crouch, and almost blasted him back (again.) "Mr. Crouch!" Harry said, surprised.

"Potter," he breathed, chest heaving from unknown strain. "Need Professor Dumbledore, please... I've done... horrible. Get him..."

Harry looked at him. What was happening? Had Crouch gone mad?

Harry made a split second decision, and thrust his hand forward, physically knocking the man out in the way Arthur had taught him.

"Vat..." Victor started, but Harry simply said, but Harry interrupted him.

"I don't know what's going on with him, but he wasn't in his right mind. I'm going to get him somewhere where he can regain it." Harry said, voice hard.

Krum nodded. "Are you in need off help?"

Harry tilted his head. "Er, could you levitate him to that hut over there?" Victor nodded in acquiescence.

"Hagrid!" Harry yelled, banging on the door to his friends house.

"'Arty!" Hagrid grinned, then looked behind him. "'Arry? Wa's happened?"

Harry edited his story a bit, looking at his fellow champion sharply. "Krum and I thought we saw something moving in the woods, after being called down to the pitch. We found Crouch, and thought we should probably bring him to where he could get help."

Victor hid his surprise well, and nodded along with the story. "Righ', then. Mr. Krum Do ye know were the 'Eadmaster's office is?"

Victor shook his head. "I haff not seen it."

"We'll both get Professor Dumbledore." Harry said. "And anyone else, do you think?"

Hagrid said, looking down at Crouch, "Nah, just Dumbledore, and he'll know what ter -"

Hagrid was stopped abruptly when Crouch grabbed his brown coat. "Please... it's all my fault. Please..." He, too, stopped talking. Then he sat up straight. "Weatherby." He said primly. "Weatherby. You must make sure to -" He stopped again, eyes crossing wildly.

"Right. We'd better hurry." Harry said.

Harry and Victor ran up the path to the castle, barely stopping when they saw Professor Moody limp down the path. Harry swung back around, running to him.

"Professor! Have you seen the headmaster?" Harry yelled.

Moody turned around to face him. "He should be in his office. Why?"

"I need to ask him... wait. Do you have my map?" Harry said quickly.

"Yes, I have it." Moody patted his pocket.

"Right. I need it back, to find the Headmaster." Harry's eyes flashed, and Moody nodded.

"Of course. Thank you for allowing me to borrow it." He said, passing the parchment over.

"Welcome, Professor." Harry lowered his voice slightly, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Victor, looking very confused, allowed himself to be pulled along as Harry yelled in triumph and ran with renewed vigour towards the castle.

"Oh... I don't have time for this." Harry said, realizing he didn't know the password. "Acid pops. Fizzing whizzbees. Chocolate frogs. Blood pops-" The door opened, allowing the two to run to the edge of the moving staircase.

"Professor Dumbledore!" Harry banged on the door. It opened, causing him to fall through, Victor grabbing his arm.

"Professor, Mr. Crouch, down at Hagrid's, he's..." Harry stopped for breath.

Dumbledore wasted no time. Moving with a speed not expected of his age, he started down the stairs.

"Lead the way, Harry. You can explain as we go."

"Victor and I were heading back from the pitch, we saw something in the woods. It was Mr. Crouch, unconscious. We brought him to Hagrids, and he woke up, but he was talking nonsense, and we thought we should get you..."

Dumbledore nodded at this. "If he is indeed at Hagrid's, then I can take it from here. Mr. Krum, you may continue your business. Mr. Potter, if you could alert Madam Pomphrey, and Professor Snape?" The two champions nodded, and walked in separate directions.

"Madam Pomphrey?" Harry opened the door to the Hospital Wing.

"Mr. Potter, what have you done to yourself this time?" She said, walking over to him.

"Oh, no. I'm fine, but Professor Dumbledore asked me to tell you that your presence is required at Hagrid's." Harry assured her.

"Of course. Do you know why?" She asked.

"It has something to do with Barty Crouch." Harry said, before running out the door in search of his least favourite professor.

"Professor Snape?" Harry knocked on his office door.

Snape pulled the door open, sneering when he saw Harry. "What do you want, Potter?"

"Professor Dumbledore needs you to go to Hagrid's hut." Harry said quickly. "It's about Mr. Crouch."

Snape snapped forward, causing Harry to quickly swing out of the doorway so his professor could get through. "Do not go in my office, boy." He said as he left.

Harry waited until the hurried footsteps were out of hearing range, then stepped forward. Snape said not to go in there... why? Did he simply want to keep him from prying, or did he have something to hide? Harry played with the idea of searching his office, but rejected it. He didn't know what he was looking for, and there was every possibility he could get caught. 'Too risky, and not a big enough reward.' Harry told himself, and closed the door. He had a lot to tell his friends.

Hermione and Ron took a bit to digest this new information, after he told his tale, but the first thing out of either of their mouths was "We need to tell Sirius!"

Hermione quickly followed Ron's comment with a, "How can we find out what happened?"

Harry shook his head to clear it, then addressed Hermione's question first. "I dunno how to find out more. Krum and I were told to leave, and then it was just Professor Dumbledore, Snape, Madam Pomphrey at Hagrid's... Hagrid! We could ask him!"

Hermione nodded, and Ron said, "I wish we had the map. Then we could see if he's still on the grounds."

"Hang on!" Harry said excitedly, pulling out the map, "I saw Moody walking outside when Krum and I were coming back! I asked for it, to find Dumbledore in time."

Ron grinned in triumph, but Hermione looked thoughtful. "I wonder what he was doing, though." She said, "I mean, he was headed in the direction you came from, and he had the map..."

Ron's eyes lit with understanding. "You think he knew about it, and went down to check it out?"

"That's exactly what I think. But what I think of it, I don't quite know."

It was daybreak. Harry, Ron and Hermione crept out of bed early to send their note to Sirius, explaining both the Crouch Business and the third Task.

"What do you think's going to happen?" Ron said.

"Honestly, I don't have a clue. We don't even know why Crouch was raving mad, in the forbidden forest and not sick in bed like he said he was. It's strange, and not in a good way. Too many strange things happening at once, it can't be a coincidence." Harry said as they stepped into the Owlery.

"Your right, Harry." Hermione said, tying the note to one of the few barn-owls back from hunting for the night. "I think..."

But she trailed off, and Harry soon figured out why. He could hear two voices arguing, getting louder and louder as they approached.

"- Play dirty, like him. If we threaten to tell the Ministry, then -"

"-That would be blackmail. If you put that in writing..."

"- And if we get a nice fat payoff? I think-"

The door opened. Fred and George stood there, freezing at the sight of the Trio.

"What're you doing here?" Ron and George said together.

"Sending a letter." Harry and Fred said in unison.

"At this hour?" Hermione and George spoke at the same time.

Fred grinned. "Alright. You don't ask what we're doing, we don't ask what you're doing. Deal?"

"Fine." Harry said. Ron made a move to stop him from talking, but Harry shook his head minutely. He looked down at the letter in George's hand. Coincidentally, or perhaps not so, the receivers name was covered.

"Well, don't let us hold you up," Fred said, mock-bowing.

Harry, Camelot instincts kicking in, nodded back, falling in step with Hermione as they left, a reluctant Ron trailing behind them.

"Did you hear them? Blackmail?" Ron burst after the door closed.

"I know." Harry said quietly.

"Why did you just let them go? They could get into serious trouble with that!"

Hermione spoke up for him, "Nagging them about it wouldn't have helped. But you're right. These aren't just silly rules, it's the law their braking."

Harry sighed. "Just another coincidence."

Hermione said, "I don't think this is related, Harry. If it was serious, they'd tell someone."

"Well," Ron said edgily. "I dunno. The way they've been lately, they'd do anything for a bit of money..."

Harry shook his head. "We can't think that. Fred and George don't have it in them to do something like that out of the blue. That was revenge."

The three had taken to monitoring the Map whenever they had the chance, looking for Crouch, but to no avail. He had disappeared, or left the school. They didn't notice any difference in the teachers that were there, besides a small frown on Moody's face. But they didn't even know if he's been there.

Harry almost jumped when, in the middle of History of Magic, he spotted a "Barty Crouch" in Moody's office. But no, Harry looked back at it, he was standing in a corner of the office, 'Alastor Moody' written above the unmoving letters.

Meanwhile, they had taken to practising for the task. Sirius's frequent letters reminded them of it's approach. Harry was working well with his fake wand, he used it while doing almost all of his magic. Transfiguration was still a slight problem (Everything he did seemed to grow a bit too much, get a little bit larger than he wanted it to. Once, his transfigured quill had turned into a bird, but at least that wasn't during class.)

In divination, Harry and Ron had taken to looking up spells he could use while Trelawney wasn't watching. Once, in class, however, Harry dozed off a bit. He dreamt of flying through the air, past hills to a dark house.

"Your blunder has not ruined all, yet... I apologize, Nagini, you cannot eat him..." Harry heard, and swiftly shook his head as he regained his senses.

"Harry?" Ron asked worriedly.

"Nothing. Just dozed off." Harry twirled his quill in his hand. This reminded him too much of Morgana - the visions she said she had, when she was asleep... he didn't like it.

It wasn't nothing, though. Harry knew that, so he slipped away from Ron after class, meaning to talk to Dumbledore.

"Blood Pops." Harry said, and the gargoyle, and stepped up. The office was empty, save for Fawkes, who trilled at him invitingly.

Harry went over to say hello, but he couldn't help but notice a faint, glowing, _something_ coming from a cabinet.

Harry walked over to the object, looking at the swirly silver substance.

It took shape as he kept a worried hand over it, forming a pool that showed him...

Barty Crouch, in a circular room with hundreds of others, all looking at a crazed figure, squirming in the centre, his hair sticking up wildly... "I have no son!" Harry heard echoing in the pool, and turned away.

Harry looked around the office warily, but saw no one. The former headmasters and mistresses were sleeping soundly. He turned around and ran all the way back to Gryffindor tower.

These coincidences, Harry knew that they weren't coincidences. In the time leading up to the third task, one thought was lingering in the back of his mind. 'It all leads back to Voldemort.' More than anything, Harry wanted to retreat, to where no one could find him, to run to Camelot... but he didn't. He knew he couldn't. He was reminded of Merlin, who tirelessly worked towards what he knew was his Destiny to complete. Harry almost envied him - he knew what he was doing was good, he had a clear goal in mind. He knew that things would get better.

Were things going to get better for him? He didn't know. All he could do was keep working, keep learning, keep his head down... and sooner than it seemed, two and a half weeks had passed and the Triwizard tournament was only half a day away...

"Mr. Potter," Said Professor McGonogall at breakfast. "The champions are congregating in the chamber off the Hall after breakfast."

Harry swallowed his eggs, then blurted out, "But the tasks not till dusk!"

"I am aware, Mr. Potter. The champions families are invited to the final task, however. This is your chance to speak with them."

Harry gaped. "I have no family here. Does she expect the Dursleys to show up?"

Ron shrugged. "You'd better go."

Harry nodded and walked over, trailing behind the three champions.

Harry saw the three meet up with their families jealously. He looked around, about to leave, when - "Surprise!" cried Molly Weasley.

"Mrs. Weasley! Bill!" Harry grinned, walking up to them.

Bill shook his hand, and Harry smiled gratefully. When Mrs. Weasley went for a hug, Harry accepted, whispering, "Thanks for coming."

"Of course, Harry! We thought we'd come see you." She said.

"Good old Hogwarts," Bill said, glancing around. Harry noticed his glance seemed to linger across the room, where Fleur was standing with her family. Fleur glanced lingering, too. "Think you could give us a tour?"

"Sure," Harry said easily. "So, has Hogwarts changed at all since you guys were here?"

Bill looked at the entrance Hall. "Still got Sir Cadogan causing confusion?" He looked at the paintings.

"A lot of it, yes. He filled in for the Fat Lady at one point, actually."

"Ooh, she's still around?" Mrs. Weasley giggled. "I remember when she told me off for getting back at four in the morning, once."

"Four in the...? Never mind." Bill said, eyeing his giggling mother.

After visiting the grounds, the tower, and half the halls, they decided it was time for lunch.

"Hello," Mrs. Weasley said to Ron and Hermione, sitting down as far away from the bushy-headed girl as possible.

Harry sat next to Hermione, looking at her quizzically. She whispered to him, "The Witch Weekly article, by the Skeeter woman. She thinks we're dating. Harry's eyes widened comically, making Hermione smile. "That's what I thought, too. You're like a brother to me!"

"Mrs. Weasley," Harry called to her, leaning around Ron, "You haven't read that Witch Weekly rubbish, have you? Hermione and I aren't dating."

"Oh! No, of course not." She said, and treated Hermione much more warmly after that.

Harry leaned over. "You know, that actually explains a lot." Hermione looked at him questioningly, "That's what Krum wanted to ask me about."

Hermione nodded, ducking her head a tiny bit to conceal her grin.

The meal stretched on, and with it grew Harry's nervousness. When Bagman announced that all champions must go to the pitch, Harry jerked up, robotic. He didn't notice as the Gryffindors applauded him, didn't pay attention when the Weasleys and Hermione offered their luck. He just walked blankly behind Cedric, standing next to Victor.

"Confident, Harry?" Bagman asked.

"I'm alright." It was partially true. He was mostly alright, but for the numbness that started to settle over him. This is it. The final task, the end. Whatever people are planning, this is their last chance.

Harry almost panicked. He calmed himself down just as he was about to go in, thinking of his friends in Camelot. Merlin wouldn't freak out like this. Arthur would face it head-on, sword in hand, battle ready. Harry reminded himself of the sword skills he had picked up then, and decided that once he got in the maze, he was conjuring a sword and ditching the wand.

As he was in the lead, Harry went in first, wand out for appearances. He smiled nervously at his competition, and turned left.

The moment he was out of sight, a conjured sword materialized in his hand, and he threw the wand carelessly behind him.* He still had his real one somewhere, if he ever needed to use it again. He walked along, keeping his sword up and always turning left. He figured, if he turned left, he could always know how to go back by going right. It got darker, and Harry lit his surroundings with a familiar orb.

'Hagrid's Screwts!' Harry remembered as he ran into one. He sized it up, looking at his sword. He shot a harmless yellow light to hover above it, distracting the stupid creature, and stabbed right through its harmless underbelly. Harry continued on, turning left, left, left, until he realized he could be circling the maze and not realizing it. He remembered a spell, "Point me," he whispered, holding up a stick.

It swivelled, eventually pointing straight ahead. He was heading right to where the cup - the 'finish' line - was. He would just try to head in the same general direction, until he made it there.

An icy cold covered him, as he saw a dementor gliding towards him - Harry hadn't tried a patronus recently, he couldn't even think of a happy memory - he could think of a hope, though. Going back to Camelot, seeing Merlin and Arthur, Gwen and Morgana, "Expexto Patronum!" Harry yelled, thrusting his hand forward, gripping his sword tightly.

A stag formed from mist chased after it, making it stumble - A dementor, stumbling? "It's a boggart!" Harry laughed at himself, "Riddikulus!"

The dementor exploded, and Harry pressed on.

He next saw a golden mist, shimmering across his path. He swiped his sword through it, but nothing happened. He ran forward, momentum pushing him along as he had the odd feeling of being upside down. He heard a scream. It was a girls scream, and Harry couldn't help but yell, "Fleur?"

He ran forward, looking for her. No sign. He turned left again, towards her scream, left, right, left... It had been too long. There was no use in looking for her, and he had to continue.

"- The Hell, Krum?" Harry heard as he rounded a corner.

"Crucio!" Victor said coldly, making Cedric scream in pain. Victor was acting very different, not himself at all... but Harry didn't have time to ponder it.

"No!" Harry yelled, and pointed his sword at Krum with "Stupefy" on his lips.

The Bulgarian crumpled, and Harry turned to Cedric. "All right?"

"I'll be fine. I can't believe him!" Cedric yelled.

Harry nodded. "I thought he was decent, too. We should put sparks in the air, have someone take him out."

Cedric nodded, and together they sent a shower of red sparks in the air. "Let's get out of here." He said.

Harry looked at Cedric, who was staring at his skrewt-stained sword. "Blast-Ended skrewt. Should we go on?"

Cedric nodded, still confused.

Harry turned left, not looking back. He ran into a sphinx not three minutes later.

"Er..." Harry said, faced with a girl's head on a lions body. "May I pass?"

The sphinx surveyed him. "You have Old Magic, wizard."

Harry nodded. "Yes."

"You have a destiny, both here and somewhere I can no longer reach. Yes, I will allow you to pass." She paced up to him, "But only this once."

Harry nodded, "Then I thank you."

Harry walked forward, muttering "Point me," again. He was on the right track.

Harry walked quickly around a corner. A spider, a huge one with pincers twice the size of his arm sat at the side of the hedge.

Moving slowly, he tried to inch around it, only to see Cedric almost barrel right into it.

"Cedric watch out!" Harry cried, and he stopped short of it.

"Thanks!" He grinned, trying to move around the thing. The spider didn't like that, and swiped one of eight limbs at him.

Harry rushed forward, blocking him being hurt with his sword. To his astonishment, the sword didn't even make a dent in the spider's leg.

"Impedimenta!" Harry yelled at the creature, but to no avail. It just dragged him through the air by the leg, pricing it with its pincers.

Harry struggled to get upright, blood rushing to his head, sword swinging wildly - Harry had an idea, and swiped it in the eyes. The spider dropped him in surprise, and Harry fell hard on the ground.

"Take the cup, Cedric. It's yours," He looked at the cut in his leg, which was bleeding profusely.

"No, if you hadn't helped..."

"Take. The. Cup."

"No!"

Harry sighed. "You have it. I'm injured, you win. You're the real champion, anyway."

"No."

Harry tried to stand, but his leg was burning. Cedric kept him up, grabbing his shoulders.

"We can grab it together. Hogwarts wins." Cedric said.

"Fine." Harry limped to the cup, Cedric supporting him.

"Alright. Three," Cedric counted when they reached it. "Two," Harry looked at his peer, who looked determined. "One."

They grabbed the cup, and immediately, the familiar jerk behind the naval brought the world to a dark swirl of colours.

"What happened?" Cedric panted. Wherever they had ended up, it was very dark, and very quiet. Harry didn't like it. He replied, "No clue. I don't think this is supposed to happen, though."

Harry limped around, lighting their surroundings with a blue-white orb.

"We're in a graveyard!" Cedric yelled.

Harry noticed a headstone, 'Tom Riddle.' "This is bad. This is really bad." Harry said to himself.

A figure appeared; he was clutching something, cradling it with one arm. Cedric and Harry stood, back to back. The figure lowered its hood. "Wormtail!" Harry yelled, just as his scar exploded.

"Kill the spare." He heard.

"Avada Kedavra!" Wormtail said, aiming at Cedric.

"No!" Harry yelled. The world seemed to slow, and the green light crawled towards them. Harry raised a hand, creating a solid, silver shield.

The curse bounced off, and Wormtail had to duck.

He heard a whisper, "Knock them out," from the bundle, and Harry knew no more.

Harry came to at an 'ennervate,' surely cast by Wormtail. Blearily, he looked around, trying to twist and see his surroundings.

He was bound by vine like cords, tied to a rock. In front of him was a cauldron, Wormtail with an odd, silver hand, Cedric, lying unconscious, held down by chains - and a figure, bathed in darkness, standing behind the cauldron.

"Harry Potter," It said, and Harry's scar burned. He knew that voice.

"Voldemort." Said Harry.

"You see what I have done? I have regained my former glory! Why, in fact, it's all thanks to you." Harry scowled.

"Really?" Harry eyed his sword, lying several feet away. "Better fix that, then." In a flash (of gold) Harry summoned his sword and slashed upwards. His bonds cut, he stationed himself away from Voldemort, in front of Cedric.

"How did you..." Voldemort looked slightly worried. "You want to duel? I will duel you, gladly."

He raised his wand and lit. For the first time, Harry could see the circle of Death Eaters in white masks around them.

"Crap." Harry muttered. He raised his sword.

"If you want to duel, Harry, you need your wand."

Harry scoffed. "To duel you? No, I've got a sword." Harry held up a hand, creating a ball of flame in his palm, which he threw at Voldemort.

Voldemort dodged frantically, and watched as the flame melted down one of the graveyard statues. Voldemort gasped, and Harry laughed a bit. Maybe showing that he had different magic was a bad idea, but it was fun. "Avada Kedavra!"

Harry scowled, ducked, and sent a silent 'stupefy!' Through his sword, attempting to look somewhat normal.

Voldemort deflected it, looking very worried. "So you have a few tricks, Potter, but I doubt you know what pain is like. Crucio!"

Harry screamed, unprepared. The curse was like fire cutting through him, like ice running from his head to his toes. Harry opened his eyes, and they burned gold, sending Voldemort flying into his followers.

The curse stopped, and Harry stood, panting. "Bet you didn't expect that, snake."

"Now now, Harry. You must respect duelling rules." At Harry's scoff, Voldemort addressed his Death Eaters, "I wonder how well Potter will hold up when it's not him being hurt. Ennervate. Sectumsepera!"

Cedric woke with a start, and cried out in alarm as a slash spread across his stomach.

"No!" Harry yelled. Several agonizing seconds passed. Harry lunged forward...

"Crucio!" He was hit with agonizing pain again, but he knew what to do this time.

"Get away!" Harry yelled, eyes glowing as he slammed the dark lord back.

Voldemort looked at him, grinning slightly. It wasn't a good look on him, but no looks were good on him. He muttered, "Wormtail, keep the spare from breathing." He jabbed his wand at Harry, and all the sudden he couldn't move, couldn't speak, all he could do was watch Cedric be murdered by Wormtail's creepy silver hand.

"Harry..." Cedric said, "Get..." He was struggling to breath, but choked a something that could have been "out."

Voldemort looked at Cedric, a bored look on his face. "Avada Kedavra." He said easily.

And he was dead. Harry struggled with renewed vigour, anger taking over at the man who murdered his fellow student right in front of him. Harry wasn't innocent, when it came to killing, but this man did it for fun! Harry felt a familiar burning warmth in his eyes, and the spell that was holding him fell. Harry gripped his sword and ran, headlong, at the dark lord.

Voldemort's slit-like eyes widened, and at the last second he moved out of the way. Harry slashed towards him, nicking his side.

Voldemort drew himself up, wand pointed dangerously at Harry's heart. Harry raised a single hand, and at once, they cast their spells.

"Avada Kedavra!"

Harry heard this, and sent a angry red light at the Dark Lord, hardly knowing what it was meant to do. All he thought was to get that _thing_ away, far, far away from him.

The magic energies met in the middle - one red, one green. Harry watched, amazed, as a golden light appeared where they met. The gold magic beaded at the centre, joining their spells, and let off shimmering tendrils that formed a thick dome of light around them.

Harry focused, pushing forward physically to help the magic along, almost instinctively. The red grew, and the gold beads travelled along, towards Voldemort. Harry looked at the dark lord, who was panicked. Harry's leg hurt from the spider, but he ignored it. He pushed harder, looking right at him. He was sure his eyes were a solid gold.

When the beads met with Voldemort's wand, he let out a sharp yelp. Harry pushed harder - no conscience would be fool enough to stop from causing this man pain.

The gold enveloped the wand, and something formed at the tip - a ghostlike figure Harry soon recognized as Cedric. While Cedric drifted over to him, a woman, Bertha Jorkins, Harry recognized, came out as well. She was followed by a man, the one from his dream... Harry saw a pattern. His eyes widened, he knew what was to come next. His mum.

"Harry," He heard Cedric's voice in his ear, "Keep fighting. But, when you get out of here, don't tell my parents what really happened. They don't need that." Harry nodded, unable to look away.

"Of course, Cedric. I'm sorry, I'm so, so sorry."

"Don't be sorry for me. I'm fine now. And there's someone who wants to talk."

Harry nodded. He knew this too. The ghostly figure of Lily Evans-Potter appeared, rushing to her son.

"Harry, we're so very proud of you. Your doing the right thing, in everything. Don't you forget that, my son." Harry felt the ghostly touch of his mothers hand, and another appeared on the other.

"Harry, when you break that connection, I don't know what will happen to Voldemort, but his followers will try to kill you. You need to summon the cup, It'll bring you back." This was said in a harsh whisper, and Harry could see Voldemort still fighting the golden beads running down his wand, overtaking his killing curse with apparent ease.

"I love you." Harry's voice was shaking. He finally got to meet his parents, just not in the way he'd wish.

"We love you. Go. Now."

Harry tore his eyes and hand away, and as quickly as possible, he dropped the conjured sword, summoned the cup, and felt that too-familiar jerk at the naval. The last thing he could see was Voldemort flying through the air, and the Death Eaters rushing towards him...

Harry slammed into the ground.

Dazedly, he tried to stand, but fell. Looking around, he realized that he wasn't back in the maze. He was in the middle of the field, surrounded by hundreds and thousands of people.

Harry gaped. He had to explain so much - Announcing a dead dark lords return was a Bad Idea; he had to explain Cedric's death. And the distant thought came with a pang in his leg - the Spider.

"Cedric... dead. Spider... I'm..." Harry held his leg, gasping for breath more than he truly needed, if only for effect. People were crowding round, trying to see what happened, staring at the cup in his hand.

Harry didn't want to do this, not now. He just wanted to sleep. So he rolled his eyes up into his head, fluttering them closed, and fell backwards onto the grass.

"Potter." Harry heard, very close to his ear. Without thinking, he sent out a force field and slammed the speaker into the wall.

Harry looked up; blinking, the man lying unconscious next to the door was his Professor Moody. "Crap." Harry said.

Then, he realized, it must have been Moody to tie him to this chair. He recognized the chains, they were the ones Cedric was held in. Cedric. A lump formed in the back of his throat, Cedric had died, he had died because Harry couldn't save him... He allowed himself one, slightly strangled sounding noise before shaking himself. He had a situation to deal with, he didn't have time to dwell on anything.

Harry held a hand over the chains, willing them to fall apart. They didn't budge. He tried harder. Squirming around desperately, Harry's eyes glowed as he used magic to break them, but to no avail.

His priorities changed, however, when he noticed movement across the room. Moody was changing, bubbling, his face getting smaller and thinner, the false eye popping out, the form becoming thin and tall - freckles formed on his now thin nose, the wooden leg popped out, replaced by a lanky real one. Harry was staring at the unconscious face of Barty Crouch Junior. "Ah!" He yelped in surprise.

He sat there for a moment, frozen. Realizing he should probably alert someone, Harry shouted, "Help! Hello?"

A few moments later, with Crouch's annoying stirring making it seem like an hour or more, the office door opened. Snape glided in, wand out and alert. "Potter? What is it?" He looked surprised, then annoyed when he saw the caller.

Harry glared, unable to move, then looks pointedly at the unconscious man now behind the open door. "I woke up tied to a chair, and Moody snuck up behind me, so I accidentally blew him backwards and he got knocked out. Then he just turned into Barty Crouch Junior and don't you try telling me that I was the one who stole your boomslang skin, because it looked like what I've read about the effects of polyjuice!" Harry said quickly. He didn't see why he couldn't use this situation to his advantage, and get himself out of the line of suspicion.

Snape looked slightly bewildered, but recovered quickly. "Eximo!" he pointed his wand at Harry, and the chains broke apart, allowing Harry to get up painfully.

"Constringo!" He said, turning to Crouch. Vine-like cords wrapped around the man, and Snape said, "Potter, we're going to the hospital wing."

Harry didn't know if Snape really noticed the looks he got walking down the hallway, a fourteen-years-dead man being levitated in front of him, and the winner of the Triwizard tournament limping behind him, looking half dead himself. Either way, they got there pretty quickly, and Harry was soon lying in a bed in the Hospital Wing, trying very hard to ignore Madam Pomphrey in favour of listening to what Professor Dumbledore and Snape were saying.

"We will have to use Veriteserum." Snape said in an undertone. "To ask how and why he is here."

"I think it was pretty clear why," Dumbledore said, "To get Harry into the tournament. Whatever his reason for it, it must have been related to the Portkey that was made from the cup." His voice lowered, "There is something Harry hasn't told us. I know this was more than that arcomantula in the maze. Something happened that we don't know about, and I believe it may be important."

Madame Pomphrey handed him a bottle, saying, "Drink this." Harry hesitated, so she said, "Now. And drink it all."

Harry sighed, and chugged the foul tasting potion down. His eyes immediately drooped and the last he heard was Dumbledore saying, "Perhaps we should send for-" and he was asleep.

Harry opened his eyes to a series of light whines and barks. The first thing that came into his vision was the figure of Padfoot at the foot of his bed.

"Sirius!" Harry said, smiling widely.

"Hey Harry." Sirius transformed. "What happened?"

"What day is it?" Harry asked, avoiding the question.

"June 25, 12:45." Sirius said patiently. "Here, your winnings from the Triwizard tournament. They would've had a celebration, but..." He set the bag down, trailing off. "Dumbledore told me you've been hurt. What happened?"

Harry looked around. The room was empty, and Harry could speak freely.

"Once I got into the maze, I conjured a sword and used that. You know, Arthur taught me, so it was better than using a fake wand. They still don't work for me. Anyways, I had reached the end of the maze, when a spider hurt my leg, but Cedric saved me. So we took the cup together and landed in a graveyard.

"We were knocked out by Wormtail, and when I woke up Voldemort was standing there. I don't know how but he brought him back to life. And we duelled, he killed Cedric... I got mad, Sirius. I tried to kill him, I just flung a curse at him - I don't even know what the curse was, but he sent the Killing curse at me. They met in the middle, and formed this big gold dome thing... I don't know how that happened. It made the people he's killed come out of his wand - Cedric, Bertha Jorkins, that muggle from my dream, and," Sirius, who had sat patiently as Harry stumbled through his story, sucked in a breath.

"You saw Lily and James."

Harry nodded. "They talked to me." He said with a sad smile. "But, Sirius," Harry said worriedly, "How did it happen in the first place? Was it because of the Eyes of Emrys potion?"

Sirius shook his head. "I don't know. Maybe Dumbledore would."

Harry jumped a bit at that. "What am I supposed to tell him? Before I went to sleep, I heard -"

The door opened, and none other than Dumbledore came in. "Speak of the devil..." Sirius muttered.

"You do not need to explain anything, Harry. I can assure you I heard the whole thing."  
Harry looked at Sirius, panicking slightly.

"Do not worry, you aren't in trouble. This situation, however, is very worrying. Voldemort has returned?" He asked, very calmly, considering. Harry nodded, hoping he wouldn't say anything about the potion. Dumbledore fell back into a chair, muttering, "So it has happened."

The old man shook his head, looking suddenly very tired, but he continued to speak. "What is this about a potion?"

Harry awaited Dumbledore's reaction anxiously, bunching the covers of the hospital bed. The old wizard sat in a chair, head resting on his hands pensively.

"Mr. Potter, I wish you had told me of this earlier." He said finally.

"What?" Harry said, confused.

"Now that this has happened, I believe you are ready to hear a few things. Once you are released from the hospital wing, please come to my office." Dumbledore waited for Harry's shaky nod, then left the room.

"Sirius, do you think he'll keep me from going back?" Harry muttered.

Sirius replied, "No, he can't. If he does he'd be stopping history from happening, and not even Dumbledore'd be willing to do that."

Harry nodded. "I hope so. I made a promise to Morgana."

Sirius looked at him with a sly grin, "And what was this promise?"

Harry glared slightly, not answering, but Sirius just took out a chocolate bar and started eating it.

"That I'd come back." Harry subconsciously rubbed the bracelet he still had received from her.

Harry was very relieved that Sirius's questions were soon interrupted by Madame Pomphrey, who took what Harry thought was an unnecessary amount of time to declare him free to go.

Harry and Padfoot walked up to the Gargoyle, Harry muttering "Acid Pops," surprised when it still worked.

When the three were sitting properly in the Headmaster's office, Dumbledore spoke.

"Harry, there is something you need to be informed of, but for this to be possible, I must be sure that it cannot be taken from your mind. You see, there is a branch of magic referred to as Mind Magics, and I need to see if your, shall we say, altered magic can block a legilimency attack. Sirius, if you would?"

"Fine, Albus, if it's necessary." Sirius said, not looking very happy about the situation.

"Why do you need Sirius's permission?" Harry asked, interested.

"As you are not yet of age, I need a guardian's approval. As your godfather, he can supply that."

Harry nodded. "Alright. What do I need to do?"

"Look here," Dumbledore locked eyes with Harry, and said, "Legilimens."

Harry maintained eye contact, waiting for something to happen. After around a minute, Dumbledore leaned back, giving up. "I cannot breach your mind, Harry. It doesn't even seem to be there."

Sirius spoke up, "Why did your eyes turn gold?"

Harry answered, "My eyes turn gold whenever I use magic, so do Merlin's."

Dumbledore nodded at this, "That would make a great deal of sense, if Harry's magic automatically defends against any mental attack, then you have a more than adequate defence. Sirius, I trust you know Occlumency?"

He nodded. "Well then," Dumbledore continued, "I have a memory to show you." He waked over to the cabinet Harry had snooped through. "This is a Pensive. It stores memories and allows them to be viewed by anyone. There is one memory that is vitally important that you know, especially as Lord Voldemort has returned." He swirled the memories until one of a familiar Divination professor rose to the surface.

"This was when I first interviewed Sybill Trelawney for the Divination post. The reason I hired her is because she made a prophecy - a true prophecy." He allowed the memory to play, and Harry and Sirius heard her speak.

Her voice low and hollow, she began, "The one with the power to vanquish the dark lord approaches... born as the seventh month dies... And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal, and he will have the power the Dark Lord knows not... the one with the power to vanquish the Dark Lord will be born as the seventh month dies...*"

Harry sat for a moment. The one was obviously himself, and the Dark Lord was Voldemort. He was 'marked' as his equal and he had Merlin's power... Harry shuddered. He disliked prophecies even more now. But it seemed this one was coming true.

Harry looked over quickly as Dumbledore started speaking. "I hope you realize what this means."

Harry nodded. "I think so... It means, I'm the one with the power to vanquish the dark lord?"

Dumbledore nodded. "This has influenced my view on many things, including your intentions to stay at Camelot over the summer." Harry looked up; he knew the answer, he was going to be forbidden to go back, made to live at the Dursley's. "Harry my boy, you must return."

Harry said dejectedly, "The Dursley's?" He should have known, it would never have-

"No," Dumbledore stopped his thoughts. "You must return to Camelot." Harry was confused. "If this is truly the power the Dark Lord knows not, you must learn to use your powers to the best of your abilities. Also, if you do not return as you planned, it could completely change history as we know it. I do not wish to risk that."

Harry grinned broadly. "Great! Can I leave from here, when school ends?"

Dumbledore shook his head. "My boy, it is much more complicated than that. Firstly, If you were indeed a lord, you will need to prove you are one. They would expect you to have money, horses... I also cannot allow you to go alone."

Sirius spoke up, "I'll go with him!" He smiled, and took another bite of his chocolate bar.

"That may be a good idea, actually." Harry said hopefully. "I mean, he doesn't have anything to do here, and he could be my 'guard' or something."

Dumbledore nodded. "Then you two shall travel back to Camelot."

Harry threw himself into getting ready to return, making edits to his spells to take Sirius back with him, changing his possessions to look acceptable in Camelot. He barely gave himself time to think, and that suited him. That way, he didn't need to think about anything. By the time the next weekend came, Harry was confident that the plans for going to Camelot were complete.

"Harry, are you alright?" Hermione asked him the morning of the end of the year feast.

"I don't know, Hermione." Harry rubbed his eyes. "I just... I don't know."

"Well you'd better make sure you're packed properly, the both of you. Where's Sirius, has he finished?"

Sirius had been staying in an empty room somewhere in the castle, and besides running to Gringotts to get gold (and swords) he wasn't willing to leave Harry and Dumbledore knew well enough he wouldn't be convinced.

"Come on, we've got to make sure Sirius is packed. Bring your trunk, I can make sure everything your bringing is Camelot-safe."

"Sirius, is this a giant bar of chocolate?" Hermione almost screamed.

"Aw, come on, I won't eat it when any old people are there!" Sirius whined. It wasn't the first time, either. Harry almost died laughing when Hermione confiscated the last five Zonko's items.

"Sirius, this is serious!"

"Hello Serious, how do you do?" Sirius said.

Hermione really did scream, that time.

Ron sat down to the feast across from Harry. Once food was on his plate, he didn't tend to pay attention to much else, but he couldn't help but notice Harry kept breaking into silent laughter whenever he looked over at Hermione, and especially when he looked at anything made of chocolate.

"Come on, Harry. Let's get on the train!" Hermione said exasperatedly. Harry was looking distractedly at a black shape that may or may not have been taunting the giant squid. Harry allowed himself to be pulled onto the train.

"Oh, Harry! Remember that writer, Rita Skeeter?"

Harry thought for a moment. "Vaguely, yeah."

Hermione's grin became vicious. "So I was understandably upset when she wrote an article about me, when I never gave my permission or an interview. I investigated, and look what I found?" She held up a jar with a big beetle in it.

Harry grinned. "No. You didn't."

"Yes, yes I did." Hermione said smugly. "She's been in here for three weeks, actually."

Ron gaped at that. "Three weeks? How's she surviving?" But he only got a grin in return.

"Hermione, you really are the cleverest witch of the age." Harry said, patting her on the shoulder. "That was genius!"

The moment the train started moving, however, their compartment got quiet, and Harry had nothing to do but think. Thinking wasn't his favourite activity at the moment, because it allowed him to dwell on things. Harry opened his mouth to speak, then stopped.

A few minutes later, he finally said, "Ron, Hermione? I was wondering..." He wanted to tell them about the prophecy, about Voldemort, even, but he realized that Dumbledore hadn't wanted anyone who didn't have occlumency shields to know it. And they didn't need to hear about it, because maybe he'd have a solution before Voldemort got enough power. Then he could pretend it never have happened. "Is it okay if I leave for a moment? I need to do something." Harry said abruptly.

"Sure, Harry." Said Ron, looking a bit confused.

Struck with inspiration, Harry grabbed his Triwizard winnings. He did a quick 'point me' and arrived at Fred, George and Lee Jordan's compartment.

"Harry! How are you?" Fred said cheerily, stopping in the middle of hanging _something_ on his twins nose. George and Lee echoed his sentiments easily, so at least whatever it was was voluntary.

"I have a proposal, actually." Harry said. "Lee, It's not that I don't trust you, but-"

Lee stood, "Its fine, Harry. I'll come back in a bit."

"Right, thanks." Harry said, and waited until the door was closed to continue. "I have a good idea of what was happening that time in the Owlrey, but I'm not here to get you in trouble. It was Bagman, right? You were blackmailing him to get your money."

George and Fred nodded somewhat surprised. "We never did get it back." Fred said in answer.

"Right, well I have a solution to that. I have a lot of money here," He held up the bag, "And don't even say anything about charity, because I'll be getting my money's worth. There may be certain times when I need... distractions to happen, in the future. You happen to be pretty good at those, especially if you have funding. Consider this payment for that."

George's eyes narrowed. "What exactly would you be using it for?"

"Nothing bad," He assured them. "In fact, if you want I can tell you what it's for, when it comes to it."

They seemed content with that arrangement, "Well then, Harry my good friend-" George said.

"I think we have a deal." Fred finished.

"Great!" Harry tossed the bag carelessly at them. "Have fun. Oh, and get Ron some new dress robes, yeah?"

Fred grinned.

Harry stepped back into his compartment, already having formed a story to explain his absence. But before he could do so, the door slid open again, allowing Draco Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle to come in.

Harry rolled his eyes, "Next time, Mione, we'll have to remember to lock the door."

Hermione nodded vaguely, and went back to her book. Harry absently tried to start a conversation with Ron, but was rudely interrupted.

"Look at that, Potty, Weasel and a Mudblood." Draco drawled, trying to gain their attention.

Harry smirked, "Making fun of our names are you? You're one to talk. What kind of name is Draco anyway?" Ron looked utterly confused and Hermione looked mildly worried that Harry had even asked this question. After all, Harry had used it himself in Camelot.

"I'll have you know," Draco said pompously. "That I was named after Lord Draco, sorcerer and friend of Merlin himself!"

**Chapter Word Count: 8,409**

**Thanks Shadowchylde for pointing out my mistake. Yeah...**

**Wow! Guys! Some people really have problems with this chapter. To address the Wand problem, when Harry left his wand in his back pocket in the first chapter, when he transformed, he absorbed the magic of it. Hense the pheonix effect. I'm putting this here because the way the story is going, I'm not sure I can write it in. **

**And you guys have to remember that having Merlin's magic does NOT make Harry superpowered. Merlin himself couldn't break the chains that were used, and the dragon had to help him. The reason Snape could and Harry couldn't is simply Snape knew a counter spell. Having different magic doesn't nullify wand magic either.**

**The third concern, 'Why did you kill Cedric? I loved him!' I wanted him to be bitten by a proper vampire. be glad Voldemort didn't have any there. (Other reasons can be read in the twelth chapter.)**

_**Thanks for reading!  
SH**_


	8. Chapter 8: We're Off to See the Warlock

**Chapter 8: We're off to see the Warlock  
Summary: Harry and Sirius head to Camelot, make a few friends and attempt to get a drink.**

**Edit: So I was doing some reformatting, and this chapter is the former eighth and ninth chapters.**

Ron and Hermione bid Harry farewell at Kings Cross station, grinning and wishing him a good holiday.

Harry and Padfoot walked calmly down the road - well, Harry was calm. But Sirius was pretending to be a dog, so that was to be expected.

Harry walked quickly, moving behind an empty looking building. "All right, Sirius. We're landing pretty far from Camelot so we can grab some horses. If you transform right when we get there, it shouldn't be seen. You remember the plan?" Harry took his muggle jacket off, revealing his travel-clothes he had left Camelot in.

Sirius nodded and wagged his tail. Harry grabbed hold of his godfathers fur in one hand, gripped his shoulder bag and they disappeared in a flash of white light.

The two landed hard on a wooden bridge. A quickly-turned-human Sirius groaned and muttered, "You didn't mention that the landing hurt so much!"

Harry looked around. Past the bridge was a crowded village surrounded by a dense forest. Sirius dragged him up, motioning for Harry to get out of the way. Harry moved to the side of the bridge, just as a horse galloped by, it's rider nodding to them as he passed.

Harry looked to Sirius. "Best place to get horses and find out where we've landed."

Sirius nodded, "It's going to be nice to be able to show my face somewhere without people freaking out."

Harry grinned. "Tell me about it."

The village, fortunately, had stables in it despite it's surroundings. Harry and Sirius entered the stable, and both winced as the smell hit them. "This makes me feel even more bad for Merlin," Harry said, "He has to muck these things out on a regular basis."

Sirius scrunched his nose, and was about to speak when a man approached them. "What are you doing here?" He asked, shortly but not rudely.

"Sorry, my friend! We were hoping to purchase some of these beautiful beasts." Harry said, elbowing Sirius so he could speak.

"You wanna buy them? I'm sorry, but these horses won't come cheap. They're the tamest we've had in a while..."

Sirius cut in at this, "Money is no object." He pulled out a sack of galleons and sickles.

The man nodded. "Perhaps... ten gold pieces for the both of them, then?"

Harry, who had gotten an idea of the money system last time around, scoffed. "They can't be that wonderful. We'll give you three."

The man frowned. "five and three silver."

Sirius looked at Harry, who nodded. "Deal." He said. The man didn't even twitch at the Gringotts markings on the coins. Apparently gold was gold, silver was silver, and it didn't matter. Oh, or it might have been Sirius putting a notice-me-not charm on them. Either one.

Harry and Sirius were led to two brown stallions, and given saddles and gear for them.

"Sirius, how much horseback riding have you done?" Harry asked as he took his reigns.

"I rode a bit summer after fifth year, which is also when your father and I learned fencing. All in all, they can't be too different." Sirius said cockily, putting his foot in the stirrup and attempting to get up.

Harry sighed as his godfather fell to the ground. From his position, Sirius could see a shop with a sign on it, saying 'Makers of Fine Staffs' on it.

"Harry, look!" He pointed to it. "Can't be too close to Camelot, if there's a staff maker here."

Harry nodded in agreement. Seeing an old man step out of the shop with a staff in hand, they approached him. "Excuse me," Harry said kindly. "Where are we?"

The man looked at them strangely. "You're in Moyta, on the edge of Mercia. How do you not know where you are?"

Harry shrugged apologetically. "We may or may not have travelled through time. You make staffs?" He said, motioning to the one in the man's hand. He really didn't think anyone would be able to take that statement seriously, and if they joked about it, it was securing the idea that they hadn't. At least, that's what Harry thought.

"Aye." He said proudly. "Even made one for Alator of the Catha himself."

Harry nodded. He had never seen one of these, but that was to be expected, where he had visited magic was banned. "What are they used for?"

The man looked at him strangely. "They amplify magic, of course."

Sirius nodded. "Kind of like a wand, then." Harry stepped on his foot to tell him to shut up, but Sirius ignored him.

"A wand? What is that?" The man said.

Harry cut in, "Nothing, it's just a smaller magic tool that is used where we live." Didn't Sirius realize that wands probably didn't exist yet?

"Interesting." The man said. "It is not often we get travellers here who have magic, and are not searching for a staff maker or another service of a sorcerer. What is this wand of yours?"

Sirius whipped his wand out proudly, "This is my wand. Here," He allowed gold and red sparks to fly out of his wand.

"That is intriguing. Would you like to come into my shop?" Sirius looked at Harry, who shrugged to show he was fine either way, and stepped inside, Harry tying the horses to a bar just outside.

While Sirius explained way too much about wands to the man for Harry's comfort, Harry busied himself looking at the staffs around the room. He picked one up, grinning when the gem at the top turned an unnatural purple. It looked like staffs worked for him, while wands didn't for whatever reason. If he wasn't going to Camelot, he might buy one.

"See, wands are made of different woods, and it has a core inside. Mine's the hair from the mane of a unicorn..."

Harry cut in before Sirius could do more damage, "I apologize, but we really must be leaving."

Sirius and the man frowned, but stopped talking.

"Where are you headed, so I may give you directions?" The man asked.

Harry winced. "Ah, we're actually headed to Camelot." At the man's darkening expression, Harry hastily added, "We're meeting Emrys there." The man's face lit.

"You know Emrys? You actually know him?"

Harry nodded weakly. _'This is really not the best way to integrate Sirius into medieval times. He'll get ideas.' _Harry thought worriedly, but said, "I may have accidentally magicked myself to Camelot, and he got me out of a spot of trouble." There. Not giving any secrets away.

The man gaped. "What are your names?"

"My name is Draco, and this is Sirius."

"Draco, Sirius, could you pass on my regards to Emrys? Tell him, that if he ever finds himself near Moyta, he will be welcomed. Please tell him that the Olivander family will support him no matter what."

Harry looked at Sirius, who looked back at him with a hint of a smile on his face. "We'll do that." Sirius said. "Now which way to Camelot?" His voice choked as he finished, desperately trying not to laugh.

Olivander walked outside with them and headed them off to the south. Once they were out of hearing range, Sirius leaned on his horse, laughing. Harry joined him, and gasped out, "I... cannot believe that you just... introduced the Olivander's to wands."

Sirius gasped for breath, face buried in his horses mane. After a minute, they collected themselves and set off towards Camelot, breaking into laughter every five minutes.

They rode slowly, Harry using the time to explain everything about Camelot to Sirius. When they weren't talking, Sirius had an awful habit of humming 'We're off to See the Wizard.' Where Sirius even picked up the song, Harry didn't know, but it was very annoying.

At nightfall, Harry grabbed his shrunken trunk, placing it on the ground next to Sirius's.

"This isn't going to work." Harry said. "There's no way they'd believe we've got trunks. How would we carry them?"

Sirius nodded, "We'll just have to..." He stuck his tongue out in concentration, poked the trunk, and it turned into a large saddlebag, the items inside wiggling disturbingly as they rearranged themselves. "Transfigure them."

Harry nodded. "Could you do mine, too? My magic is a bit... unpredictable when it comes to transfiguration." Sirius nodded, and Harry's trunk also turned to a saddlebag.

Sirius frowned, "There is one thing, though. If I'm meant to be your guard, I'm going to have to get used to wielding a sword. I don't think they'll believe me otherwise."

Harry shook his head. "No, remember? I 'rescued' you from the evil Sorcerer Marvolo, knowing you were loyal to my father, Lord James."

Sirius nodded, "I still can't believe you used that." He said laughingly.

"Hey, it's best to lie with the truth." He said, holding his hands up in defence. "But I did learn a thing or three from Arthur. I could make sure you at least know some things."

Sirius nodded. They sat in silence for a bit, until he spoke up again, fiddling with some leaves. "Harry, I know some people would give you trouble about this, this whole thing. I want you to know, I think coming here with you is one of the best things I've done. You're a great kid, and even if your transfigurations a little wonky -"

"Wonky?" Harry said, mock-disturbed.

"Olivander said it, don't blame me!" Sirius said defensively.

"Right..." Harry said, a smile forming on his face. "Thank you, though, Sirius. I'm really glad I could bring you here."

Sirius smiled, then threw little bits of leaf at him. "Now enough of that, we need to sleep!"

Harry sighed as Sirius brought out a bright green sleeping bag, zipping it up once he snuggled in with a teddy bear. He took out his own bedroll and went to sleep, charming the fire to burn safely throughout the night.

"Har- Draco can we go, please?" Sirius begged for the hundredth time.

"It's a tavern. Why in the world do you want to go to a tavern so badly?"

"It's a _tavern_." Sirius said, as if that was an answer. "Come on, I'll even allow you to have a drink! It won't be anywhere near as good as firewhiskey, but we have to try!"

Harry sighed. "Fine, but as long as you promise to make your sleeping bag respectable."

Sirius nodded, wide eyed. "Of course, Harry! Let's go!"

"Wait!" Harry said, making Sirius freeze. "The teddy bear, too."

Sirius pouted. "Fine." He said whiningly, and Harry was reminded strongly of a spoilt child. He kicked his horse, and they were soon racing down the steep hill to the small town.

They soon realized they wouldn't be getting a drink any time soon. By the time they reached the tavern door, a man came flying out of it. "Tough luck, mate." Said Sirius, and ran gleefully in.

"Sirius!" Harry yelled, pulling out his sword and following him. It seemed the lack of a Dark Lord to worry about made Sirius go completely insane.

"Arthur? Merlin?" Harry yelled over the fight, astonished as he noticed his friends in the centre of the fight.

"Draco!" Arthur yelled, and punched a man in the face.

Merlin grinned over, and then flashed some plates into an approaching man. "Oh what the heck."

Harry charged into a man who was about to attack Arthur, checking quickly to make sure Sirius was okay. To keep their story intact, Harry yelled, "Sirius! You're not fully recovered! What are you doing?" And quickly punched his 'guard's opponent.

"Ow." he shook his hand. Arthur taught him sword fighting, not hand-to-hand combat. Seeing Merlin throw a bench into two men magically, Harry followed suit and soon they had overtaken them, but not before a man took a sword to the side for Arthur.

"His name's Gwaine." Merlin informed Harry. "Good to see you again, Draco."

"He saved my life," Arthur said. "We need to get him to Gaius. Draco, you have inexplicable timing, as always."

"That's… Draco." Sirius said, only pausing slightly at the name. He breathed deeply after, to cover it up.

"Oh, this is my fathers guard, Sirius. He was captured by the sorcerer Marvolo ten years ago, and I only now was able to save him in a series of events."

"Good to meet you, Sir Sirius." Arthur said formally, shaking Sirius's hand. Sirius sent a discreet grin at Harry, which only Merlin seemed to catch.

"And you. If Draco's descriptions are right, you'll be Prince Arthur." Sirius said.

"Indeed. We need to get Gwaine to Gaius, though. Do you two have horses?"

They nodded, and Arthur went off to deal with whomever had started the brawl.

"If this man bothers you again, send word to Camelot. There'll be soldiers here within a day."

"But how can you promise a thing like that?" A large lady asked.

Arthur replied, "Because I'm the Prince, Arthur. Yah!"

Sirius muttered to Harry, "He sure knows how to make an exit, I'll give him that much."

Merlin, who had gotten stuck with Gwaine on his horse, snickered at that, but stopped abruptly when the unconscious man almost fell off. "That's only because he stalls long enough to come up with one. Once, it took twenty minutes."

Arthur glared from the front of the procession, "I can hear you all, you know."

Harry chuckled. "So how have things been?"

Merlin paused. "Well... the usual. Magical threats to multiple people, including Arthur, Morgana and the whole of Camelot."

Harry frowned, "What happened?"

Merlin gave him a long glance, which had come to mean 'I'll tell you the whole story later' and said, "Morgouse, this evil sorceress, cast a spell on Morgana that made the whole of Camelot fall asleep. Eventually we lifted the curse, but..."

Arthur tightened his jaw, and Harry mouthed 'later' to Merlin. Obviously it was a touchy subject.

"Then there was a peace treaty..."

Harry tilted his head, "That doesn't sound so bad." Merlin shook his head, concealing a grin.

"You don't want to know. Then the dragon escaped and attacked Camelot..." He trailed off. "We had to find a Dragonlord, but... he didn't make it. Arthur 'killed' it in the end." There was the look again. Merlin was going to be spending a lot of time in Harry's rooms, he expected. "Then," Merlin said, "There was Cedric, the evil manservant that stole my job!" Merlin yelled the last bit at Arthur, who winced.

Harry winced as well, the reminder of Cedric wasn't welcome. He had spent a good amount of time forgetting that happened, and he sat bowed on his horse.

Sirius shook his head at Merlin, asking him not to pry, but he didn't get it. "What's wrong, Draco?" Merlin asked. Harry had an idea, "Before I left, and picked up Sirius, I had a... manservant named Cedric," He paused, making sure Arthur was listening. There was no reason he couldn't help his friend out a bit, "He, he was killed by Marvolo, because he was my servant. We were on our way here and we never would have made it if it weren't for him. He tortured him, but it bought us time... It's funny how you don't know what you have until it's gone. He was a really good friend."

Merlin, Sirius and Arthur looked at him oddly, all for completely different reasons. But Merlin was very sure, for the rest of the ride to Camelot that he didn't bring up anyone dying, or the name Cedric.

Bringing Sirius to Camelot was an idea that grew steadily less ideal as time wore on. Harry didn't know how they did it, but Sirius occupied the rooms next to Harry's, he could come and badger him at any time of day.

"Harry, I'm thinking of hiring a guard."

"You are my guard, and it's Draco."

"See, they actually expect me to guard you, and if I hired a guard, I could do... other things."

"Lord Draco."

"Draco, can I decorate my rooms?"

Harry looked at him. "Why in the world would you do that?"

"See, there's no colour, and it's absolutely devoid of chocolate fountains! Oh, and can I transfigure the mattress into a proper one? It's all itchy."

Harry groaned.

Harry was sitting at his desk, writing up a new spell book that he could leave for Morgana and Merlin, when Sirius walked in again, actually knocking for once.

"Harry?"

"Yes, Sirius." Harry said exasperatedly.

"I may or may not have completely destroyed the palace Kitchens. Did you know they have absolutely no candy here? It's horrible!"

"Sirius! Did they know it was you?" Harry asked, concerned.

"No, they didn't see me."

"Good. But please, next time you need food you can ask a servant or Merlin."

Sirius pouted, and in lack of a witty comeback, painted Harry's hair green with a flick of his wand.

Merlin walked in suddenly, "Hey Harry I – wow. How did you do that?"

Sirius grinned. "Here, I'll show you!"

"Do you think we could get owls?"

Harry turned to the doorway where Sirius stood for the fourth time that day, exasperated. "We are literally right next to each other. Why do you want an owl?"

"But Draco, owls are messenger birds! And it gets so lonely here."

"We've been here two days."

"Harry?" Sirius said. "There's a tournament coming up. Can I compete?"

Harry glared. "_You're_supposed to be recovering from ten years in an evil prison!"

Sirius grinned, "I'm already recovered!"

"But they don't know that! Go visit Gwaine or something."

Sirius grinned. "Great, we'll go to the tavern!"

Harry fell onto his bed, "What have I done?"

**Chapter Word Count: 2874**

**Thanks to Chronusnox and AmazingBouncingFerrets for helping me so much with this, and of course:**

_**Thank you all for reading!**_

_**SH**_


	9. Chapter 9: A Magical Interlude

**Merlin Chapter 9: A Magical Interlude**

**Summary: The events of "Gwaine" are tied up rather loosely, and Morgana's birthday passes remarkably well.**

Merlin walked nervously, scurrying along the hall and nearly running into Harry. Though he looked worried, he looked happy to see the pseudo-Lord.

The reason became a bit more apparent when he spoke. "I really, really hope you have some gold on you." His statement ended in a question.

Harry looked confused. "Yes, why?" Harry had actually had some in his pocket since they had come to Camelot, just in case. He  
supposed it was worth it.

Merlin handed him a paper with a muttered, "Gwaine. And possibly Sirius."

Harry looked at the paper - it was a bill from a tavern, a _long_ bill from a tavern, and he couldn't help asking, "Pickled Eggs?"

_-*-_

Uther had been very happy to see Harry return, and was naturally very sympathetic to his tale about being attacked by Marvolo. When Sirius spoke, Uther practically ordered Gaius to make sure he was seen to.

He also welcomed Gwaine, who, Arthur explained, saved all of their lives.

It was quite natural, then, that Harry, Sirius and Merlin gathered in Gaius's chambers, much to his distaste.

Harry was distracting him from this fact by helping out with a potion, so Gaius accepted working in the cramped quarters.

"So," Sirius said, "I understand you've got magic, Merlin?"

Merlin winced, even though it was said quite softly. "You told him?" He asked Harry, slightly accusingly.

"Don't blame him, I'm actually his godfather. He couldn't keep something from me if he tried." Sirius said happily.

Merlin nodded. That meant he couldn't give away his or Harry's secrets, and he was fine.

"What exactly happened to Morgana that Arthur didn't want to talk about?" Harry said.

Merlin grimaced. "A while ago, she met this lady, Morgouse, that claimed to be her sister, among other things. When she asked to meet later, She put a spell on Morgana that made everything around her fall asleep. I had to... poison her so Morgouse would lift it. The problem is, Morgouse knows a lot about the Pendragons. About how Arthur was born, and how Ygraine died..."

_-*-_

Harry walked around the castle, trying to escape anyone prone to mention tournaments.

"Hello Gwen!" Harry said happily.

"Oh, Lord Draco..." she bowed slightly, and Harry waved her off.

"No, don't do that! You shouldn't bow to me. How have you been doing?"

Gwen looked concerned. "Um, I've been alright. Have you been okay? Not that I wouldn't think you haven't been okay, I mean, I was only going to ask..."

Harry grinned. "I'm fine, but I'm trying to get away from all the people talking about Tournaments, including Sirius."

Gwen sent him a sympathetic look. "Good luck. They're horribly often around here. Sorry, but I don't think I've met Sirius."

Harry waved it off. "That's alright. He's supposed to be my guard, but he's recently made friends with Gwaine..."

Gwen nodded. "I've met him. If Sirius is occupying his time it's all the better, but I've got to get back to work."

Harry blinked. "Do you mind if I come along? I haven't seen Morgana yet since I've arrived."

"Of course." Gwen smiled knowingly.

_-*-_

"... And that's why I'm morally opposed to tournaments." Harry finished, sitting comfortably on a chair in Morgana's rooms.

Morgana nodded, wide eyed. "It seems it would have been better for both of us if you'd returned sooner. There was this woman - Morgouse, she was called. Draco, it was so strange, she gave me a bracelet and it made the dreams go away. She was nice at the beginning, until..."

Harry nodded. "Until she enchanted you, and almost caused everyone in Camelot's death. You don't have to say anything, Merlin told me what happened." Harry's eyes hardened at that. He knew it was essential to have poisoned her, but it was difficult to imagine. Harry had assigned himself the job of helping Morgana, and something like that was... not helpful.

"Don't blame Merlin." Morgana said angrily. "It took me a lot to stop Arthur from going on about he'd get Merlin thrown out of Camelot, not that I believed he'd ever really do it. He had the antidote right there..."

Harry nodded. He couldn't ever really blame Merlin, especially since he knew about his prophecy. He changed the topic quickly. "How has your..." Harry wiggled his fingers, causing golden dust to swirl around them.

Morgana took a bit to respond. "I've been practising what you taught me before, and it's controlled but..."

Harry winced apologetically, "There's only so much you can do on your own." Lord knew how much more he appreciated the Hogwarts Library, (not that he'd tell anyone that.)

Morgana nodded. "And as you're here now, perhaps you can help me learn. That way, when you aren't here, I can practice and build on that!"

Harry grinned. "I propose we go tomorrow. Then I can get away from this tournament business!"

Morgana replied, "I'll have to ask Uther, but he seems to trust you to keep me safe if I want to go on a long ride. He'll let me, I'm sure, even when a tournament's happening."

"Right. You tell Uther, and I've got to go find Sirius."

Morgana tilted her head. "Sirius?"

Because he was used to being able to tell Morgana the truth, it was hard for Harry to keep from saying 'He's my godfather.' Instead, he simply said, "He came with me here."

Morgana nodded and the pair walked opposite ways down the hallway.

_-*-_

"Sirius?" Harry knocked on the door neighbouring his.

"Ha- Draco! Come in!" Sirius said cheerily.

Harry walked in cautiously, only pausing twice when he saw an inordinate amount of purple and orange scattered about the room. "Sirius, I was hoping you'd be willing to stay here on your own tomorrow, I was going to go on a ride with Morgana..."

Sirius grinned. "Say no more. I'll take care of the Prince and his Warlock, you go have fun." Sirius gave a wink.

Harry tilted his head. Why had he winked at him? "Erm... thanks?"

_-*-_

Harry and Morgana rode quickly away from Camelot, trying to get far enough away that people wouldn't recognize them (Well, Morgana) nor would they stand out for doing magic. Harry had a good idea of where to go.

_-*-_

Standing in a clearing quite close to Moyta, horses tied to a tree, Harry was finally able to teach Morgana some magic. "There's a lot more subtle magic that you can do practically anywhere, without people noticing, not that I recommend it in Camelot. But just in case, there are charms to keep people from noticing things, see?"

Harry took a pebble, dyed it purple easily and set it on the ground. Morgana looked curiously at it, because it was definitely noticeable. She was about to say as much when she blinked, and closed her mouth again. What was she going to say?

Harry smiled, "That's how the charm works. See, Until I mention that 'Hey, there's a purple rock right there,' you won't notice it."

Morgana's face lit, and she asked, "You can show me how to do that?"

They spent the rest of the morning working on charms. Morgana especially liked the cheering charm, and begged to be able to use it on Arthur. At one point, Harry unthinkingly cast a 'Tempus' to check the time, (1:20) and brought on a whole new line of questions from Morgana, and put Harry in an awkward situation. To get out of it, he called for lunch, and went to the convenient nearby town to get it.

Just as they walked into a food shop, a high shelf began to fall. When the thought 'stop it from falling' came into Harry's head, the shelf froze in place, then stood itself up straight.

A woman at the back grinned. "Thank ye for that! Saved me a fair bit o' gold."

Harry nodded in acknowledgement, while Morgana gaped. "One day, Morgana." Harry said with a confidence that left her blinking, "That will be Camelot."

"How can you know that?" Morgana asked.

Harry smiled at her. "Throughout the Druid camps runs a name, and now more so than ever: Emrys. The warlock Emrys will aid the Once and Future King to unite the land of Albion. Right now he works in the shadows, but still protects Arthur. I don't suggest trying to find him, but be aware that Magic is not abandoned. It will return in time."

_-*-_

After an afternoon in the town, Harry and Morgana rode back quickly, but not quietly. Harry had them playing a game of light-tag (Which he was definitely doing for magic control, and not because he had played before with Merlin and it was fun,) only stopping when they neared the outer villages of Camelot. It was quite a shame, Morgana noted, because it was just beginning to get darker and the lights would help.

"We'll have to do this more often." Harry grinned. That was fun.

Morgana smiled, a joke hovering on her lips. "While I agree, the King may start wondering whether there's more going on."

Harry looked worried. He replied  
seriously, "We can't make it too often, then. We can't afford him making any assumptions. You may be safe as his ward, but I can tell you I'm not quite so unable to be disposed of."

Morgana nodded looking a bit confused. She may have been about to say something, but never got to say it. Around ten armed men came running down a hill towards them.

"Crap!" Harry yelled, looked around quickly, and blasted two of them back from his horse. Morgana looked over at him and followed suit, throwing head-sized rocks into them.

In an amazingly short time, it was done. Harry was about to let down his guard when he sensed someone behind him. He whipped around, only to see the last man with a sword through his chest.

The sword removed itself from the body, and the familiar figure of Gwaine stood grinning at them.

"Gwaine!" Harry yelled, half excited and half unimaginably worried. Had he seen them do magic? Was he going to get them both killed?

"Hey Draco, Morgana. It's been fun." There was a hint of a carefree smile, and then he was gone.

Fortunately, the confusing encounter was explained by an irate Sirius, who was waiting in the courtyard. "Next time I let you leave me on my own!" He exclaimed. "Evil people in tournaments, Arthur almost being killed and Gwaine being banished! Draco, I told you we needed owls, this is ridiculous!"

Harry calmed Sirius down and dragged him up to his room, grimacing at a sympathetic if confused look from Morgana.

_-*-_

As Sirius finished telling Harry about what had happened, he had to agree with him. "You're right Sirius, we could do with some form of communication."

Sirius nodded, suddenly cheerful again, "We can go find some owls tonight, It'll be perfect!"

Harry shook his head. "No, I was thinking something less... noticeable. What about some form of written communication?" Sirius motioned him to continue. "I don't really have ideas... well, I have an idea, but it brings back bad memories. In second year, there was a diary that wrote back... well it doesn't matter, if we use little booklets to communicate back and forth when we need to, then something like that couldn't happen."

Sirius nodded, and they set to work. The next few days saw little of Harry or Sirius, they were mostly cooped up in Harry's rooms working on a book. One of the few times when they were out and about - getting lunch - they ran into Merlin.

"Oh, hi Draco, Sirius. How are you?" He asked quickly.

"We're fine. What's got you in such a rush?" Harry asked. Now that he noticed it, many servants were rushing about.

"Don't you know? We're preparing for Morgana's birthday. It's a week from today!"

Harry nodded. "Really? How old -" Harry stopped that line of questioning abruptly, 'maybe not.' "Do you think I need to get her a present?"

Merlin nodded seriously. "Oh yes. Definitely."

_-*-_

"Sirius what am I supposed to get her?" He asked later, when they had their lunch and were working again.

Sirius gestured to the books with an expression that read, 'really?'

"Sirius, you're brilliant!"

"Of course I am." Sirius said happily. "Speaking of birthdays, when exactly is yours?"

Harry blinked. "July, I thought you knew that."

Sirius looked at him again. "You were here before for what, a month? So you've aged an extra month. That makes it almost mid-July for you. Your almost fifteen!"

"Wow. That's odd." Harry said.

_-*-_

Harry began racing to complete three books before the week was up. Sirius was a lot of help with ideas, especially considering the Marauder's Map, but they had had the Hogwarts library sitting in front of them. Harry and Sirius had only what was in their heads.

Finally, they were finished, and just in time for the celebration banquet.

"Merlin, thank god." Harry grinned, "Do you think she'll like it?"

Harry held up the deep brown book. It was made of leather, and had a smoothed turquoise stone in the centre. The book was about four inches tall, and could be closed by a long string attached to the side.

"Definitely." Merlin said. "You should have seen what Arthur wanted to get her - at least I convinced him to get a nice looking dagger. Well, maybe it was Gwen that convinced him. Either way, I'm glad it's been going without a hitch."

_-*-_

"It's beautiful, Draco," Morgana smiled at him, "Thank you."

Since Uther was right there, and since, after all, Harry was supposed to be a Lord, he thought it only fitting to reply, "Not as beautiful as you, my Lady." with only the slightest amount of silliness in his grin.

Harry was already turned away as Morgana blushed bright red, and Uther looked between the two contemplatively.

_**-—-—-_-*-_-—-—- **_**  
**  
_Morgana,___

_In a case of emergency, magically heat up the stone on the front and say the words "Chocolate Cake." Anything you write once you've done that will be sent to me as long as you address the letter as such. When you need it to look like a regular book, touch the stone and say, "I'll be back." ___

_Your friend,___

_Draco_

**Chapter Word Count: 2400**

**In case of any confusion, I skipped over the Crystal Cave bit because one, my story is in Harry's point of view and two, Morgana's not about to kill the King. As always, I am prepared to fix any Merlin/Harry Potter mistakes or random mistakes you happen to see!**

_**Thanks for Reading!**_

_**SH**_


	10. Chapter 10: The Changeling

**Chapter 10: The Changeling**

**Summary: A King and his daughter, Princess Elena, arrive in Camelot. Sirius moved to the tavern, and Harry tries to help his godfather from being an idiot and help Merlin out at the same time.  
**  
Sirius had a habit of trying to train with the knights, make cookies in the kitchens at night and other somewhat objectionable things, and somehow it always fell to Harry to stop him. In fact, even when a visiting Princess, Elena, arrived, Sirius couldn't help but ask if, at least, they had Chocolate in their kingdom, and that he would definitely move there if they did.

Fortunately, they didn't. Harry got there in time to hear her stuttered answer before he dragged Sirius off, apologizing to the Princess. (Although, she didn't seem very concerned about it at all. A short maid, Grunhilda, was holding her attention by reprimanding her, something about proper foot attire.)

Harry didn't linger to find out, instead bringing Sirius back to his rooms again.

"Harry, do you think, with your kind of magic, you could conjure me some chocolate?"

Harry quickly snapped the door closed behind him, rolling his eyes. "If it's that important to you, Sirius..." At his godfather's eager, childlike nod, he sighed. "Alright. You do recall that you're supposed to be the adult in this situation, though?"

Sirius shrugged, and said, "It's not nearly enough fun. And really, I am doing my job. So-"

Harry ignored his rambles, perhaps futilely trying to conjure chocolate. Instead, he got a brown stone, which he set beside him. The next try yielded a miniature tree, looking just like the one he had made for Transfiguration. It seemed like years ago, since he did that. He took a second just smiling, suddenly sad to have left his friends for so long. _It won't be as long to them,_ He told himself, _It was months here, but there it'll be less than a week_.

Shaking himself back to reality, he pocketed it. He already had his original one, tucked somewhere in his bag, but maybe Morgana would like it. And honestly, where was he going to put a real, living, miniature tree?

Sirius had stopped talking in favour of looking at him expectantly. Sighing, Harry tried again, concentrating on the sight, the smell, the taste of chocolate. He cupped his hands, and…

"Chocolate!" Sirius squealed, clapping his hands together in glee, grabbing the large sphere of solid chocolate from Harry. "That's amazing! It's truly edible! You can't do that with a wand!"

Harry nodded slowly. "Right. You enjoy that; I've got to go to a formal dinner for Princess Elena. I swear; it's like the Triwizard feast all over again. People really can't help showing off."

Harry looked over at Sirius to hear his reply, but wasn't really surprised to see him with the chocolate on a stick, licking it like a lollipop. For a moment, he froze to hold in his laughter, then waved himself out.

_-*-_

An hour into the feast, and Harry was begging to leave. Well, begging silently. And begging silently to himself, but he thought it still counted. Princess Elena's eating habits may very well rival Ron's, Harry thought. Then he had to stifle a giggle, as he pictured figuring out how to make one of those memory things Dumbledore had in his pensive, just to show Hermione. Morgana caught his gaze and gave a small smirk, glancing at Arthur and back. He had stopped pushing the food around on his plate a while ago, instead holding a fist to his mouth to cover his expression. Harry saw Gwen put an hand on his shoulder comfortingly as she passed, and cocked his head at Morgana. She tilted her head to say 'tell you later.'

Harry took a quick bite of some sort of meat, unable to do anything else to hide his muffled laughter as Elena burped. How did anything in Camelot take itself seriously?

_-*-_

"Harry." Sirius walked into his room. "I've run out of chocolate."

Harry opened his eyes blearily. "Go back to bed."

"But Harry, it's gone."

Harry looked up, rolling his eyes. "Actually, it's not." Sirius looked mildly affronted, until Harry gestured to his face. There was chocolate covering half of his godfathers face. It was even on his forehead, but Harry didn't want to know. "Here." Harry conjured a slab of chocolate five times larger than the last. "Keep that hidden, you can do a cooling charm on it or something, but I expect it to last more than ten hours." He grinned slightly as the batty man turned into a dog just so he could wag his tail.

_-*-_

"Hey Morgana!" Harry said cheerfully a good nine hours later.

"Hello Draco." Said the witch, allowing him into her room.

She sat down in a chair, and Harry followed suit. "I have a question for you, actually." She paused. "When... when someone is forced, well, forced socially to follow something - look, if as a noble, you have to do something, even of you think it's wrong, for the Kingdom," she frowned, "Is it really best to do it?"

Harry puzzled over that. "If it's really, really important, to keep yourself or others alive, I think you should. But if not... if it won't even help others, then it's not worth a sacrifice."

"I wish I could convince someone that was true."

Harry grinned, "You can be pretty persuasive when you want to be, Morgana." Just then, he remembered the miniature tree he had in his pocket. "Oh, I've got something for you!" He pulled out the plant. "It's a real willow tree. I made it somewhat by accident, but I thought you'd like it."

Morgana's eyes widened. "A real tree? Does it need watering, then?"

Harry shrugged. "I'm not quite sure. But it may be a good idea to keep it in the sunlight. I expect everyone will choose to believe its a carving instead of a real tree. Well, at least until the wind blows." He grinned.

"Thanks, Draco! It's beautiful. I hope I can convince Gwen to bring water for a carving, though."

Harry tilted his head slightly, checking to see if the door was locked. As it was, Harry held his hands together. "I don't think you need that. Aguamenti."

Morgana gasped as clear, sparkling water appeared in Harry's hands. Harry (who was absolutely not showing off) heated the water and threw it upwards so it evaporated into the air.

"All it really takes," Harry swirled the tree around in the air so it landed in her hands, completely dry, "is some willpower and imagination." He winked. "I'm sure you'll think of something."

_-*-_

Harry was getting a little bit desperate. It was nightfall, and he had been searching for Sirius for hours. Finally, fed up, he snatched a twig from the ground and said, "Point me Sirius Black."

Harry snorted at the location it pointed to. Typical. Of course Sirius had spent his day in a tavern. Harry thought that was just a convenient excuse that Merlin got away with.

"Sirius." Harry muttered, exasperated as he stepped into the room. All around the tavern, people were holding small cards, playing what Harry believed to be Texas hold 'em.

Harry pulled up a chair and sat next to the time hopper. "What in the world are you playing at?"

Sirius grinned. "Four silvers! Looks like that one's mine!" The men around the table groaned - evidently, this wasn't a one time occurrence.

"You know cards probably haven't been invented yet, right?" Harry hissed, unbelieving.

"And if we look in the history books of Cards when we get back, I'm positive we'll find that it was a popular game in medieval taverns." Sirius whispered back confidently.

"Oh yes, just like Wands, and chocolate, and biscuits." Harry said sardonically.

"Shh, we're in the middle of a bid!"

_-*-_

Many hours later, Harry and Sirius stumbled back to their rooms, Sirius stumbling from drink and Harry from the atmosphere of it. And many a tiny bit of ale.

Sirius chortled. "How many coins did you end up with?"

Harry spoke through his huge grin, "Six gold, seven silver." Sirius snorted, and held out his hands, showing at least twenty gold coins. "I cannot believe that they let you teach them a game and beat them at it."

Sirius blinked, and laughed drunkenly. "I didn't teach it to them. I got someone else drunk, taught it to him and he taught the rest of the tavern!" he dissolved into giggles, Harry joining in soon after.

_-*-_

The next morning found Harry groaning in annoyance as someone knocked loudly on his door.

"Hi it's Merlin!" Said a cheery voice.

"Huh? Wazappenin?" Harry slurred.

Merlin tilted his head disapprovingly, "You went to a tavern yesterday. Let me tell you, you should be glad you're not so well known as a Lord, or people would be talking. Its fortunate for you you've holed up in here. And while we're on that topic, Gaius has me picking herbs and I wondered if you'd like to come."

Harry motioned vaguely in the direction of Sirius's room, "I blame him. He's gone completely insane lately (not that he wasn't before.) Yeah, of course I'll come with you."

That was how Harry found himself roaming around the forest, following Merlin as he searched for herbs. He would have helped look, too, but after a while Merlin gave up trying to teach him what to pick and what not to.

Harry was looking around aimlessly, trying and failing to find a conversation topic. His eyes caught sight of a human shape near a stream, and a strange light whipping noise. He tapped Merlin on the shoulder and motioned to the stream.

Merlin looked puzzled, but a thought had obviously dawned on him because his eyes glowed brightly gold. Harry couldn't tell what he was doing, the magic didn't seem to be affecting anything. Then he took a good look at the person at the stream. It was Grunhilda, and after every 'whip!' she would smack her lips. Something was happening, too fast for the eye to see.

And suddenly he realized what Merlin was doing, and tried to slow time himself. But he couldn't slow time itself, not all the magic in the world could do that. Instead, Harry sped up his own reactions.

In a movement that looked much slower, he saw Grunhilda's long, purple tongue extend to a leaf, making it snap back.

A moment later, she detracted it and smacked her lips.

Harry looked at Merlin, and saw his feeling of disgusted horror mirrored in his friend's expression. Harry quickly snatched the herbs from Merlin's slack fingers, which were in danger of falling, and without a word the two sprinted away.

_-*-_

"Grunhilda? She's not human." Merlin said with an air of finality when the two of them reached Gaius's chambers.

"How are you convinced of that?" Gaius asked.

Harry grimaced. "Her tongue." Gaius took a long moment to contemplate that statement.

"Perhaps she has an ailment of some sort. What was wrong with it?"

Merlin cut in, "It was long." He took a long rod that Harry had never seen before and held it out. "This long. And purple." Merlin finished.

Gaius shook his head. "That is no sickness. I suppose..." he grimaced. "I have the best excuse, as court Physician. I will investigate."

And that was that. Harry wandered off, looking for Sirius, while Merlin raced to help the Prince on his return from riding. Harry shook his head, Merlin practically had two jobs, helping Gaius and working for Arthur. Maybe he could help Gaius out when Merlin was too busy to, so things weren't so hectic.

Of course, it was too good to hope that things would ever get less hectic. After they discovered Grunhilda was a pixie in disguise (not a Cornish one, though, right?) and Elena was a changeling, ("A changeline? What is that?" Said Sirius,) it really started going downhill.

Especially because the latest games from the taverns happened to be Yatzee and blackjack. Harry was positive that a certain dog animagus was involved.

"Sirius!" He yelled frantically as he searched the lower town. "Where is he?"

Harry quickly noticed a clash, constant banging and a whistling noise all coming from one direction, and rolled his eyes, running towards the noise.

_-*-_

"Sirius, are you insane? Seriously, we're going to give ourselves away if you keep pretending we're in the future." Harry ranted. "And going and getting into fights because you didn't tell them all the rules..."

Sirius sat with a slight grin on his face. "Don't worry. I'm careful!" His grin fell, "I'm just... it's the first time I've been out in the open, where no one knows my name or my face. It's fun."

Harry's face softened. "Of course, Sirius. And I know I can't stay here forever, but it's fun, and I hope it can last for as long as possible. I was just worried you would give me away, and snapped at you because of it. Now if you've heard at all down there in the taverns, there's a wedding going on soon. Arthur is marrying Princess Elena-"

Sirius cut in, "Poor bloke."

"Yes, yes, and I believe me and my guard are invited."

Sirius grinned. "Wedding! Brilliant. When is it?"

"An hour."

Sirius jumped up. "Then what are we waiting for? There's still some time for mischief."

_-*-_

Fortunately, they didn't get to make much mischief themselves. Unfortunately, they found someone else's, and had to act as guards to keep a crazy pixie from entering her mistresses chambers.

Of course (thanks to some interesting... obscure charms Sirius happened to know,) they heard the whole thing. Harry couldn't help but mutter to Sirius, "I can't believe 'preparations for the wedding' went under killing evil pixie maids and ridding their mistresses of Shea parasites."

Sirius snorted at that, then quickly had to turn away a few guards who had heard the racket, "Don't worry, fellas. She's just preparing her Change Line for the wedding. I don't know if you guys have any lady friends, but it can get pretty loud. Best not disturb 'em." He slung his arm around both guards shoulders, and trotted off, talking about a friend of his who had tried to prank his wife-to-be just before their wedding.

Harry smiled hugely, hoping to whatever deity there was that the friend from the story was not his father.

By the time news of the Shea's defeat reached Harry, his grin hadn't faded. In fact, it didn't disappear until five minutes before the ceremony began, and only because a straight faced Sirius elbowed him in the ribs.

The wedding was... interesting, to say the least. Harry was pretty sure they wouldn't end up marrying, because Hermione had said that Arthur always married Gwen. And that small detail Merlin had wanted to conceal became glaringly obvious (and not just because Morgana told him.) Before Arthur did anything, he glanced at the maidservant, to his father and to his fiancé. So Harry couldn't really find it in him to be surprised, but he hadn't expected Arthur to actually break it in the middle of the ceremony. He must really, really love Gwen.

Harry couldn't help applaud him, if only in his head. He supposed being prince gave him the experience to make it sound completely planned. Or at least more planned than it would have been if he had done it.

Harry spent the next few days watching the castle cool down from the visiting King's departure. Merlin looked a lot less flustered, along with the serving staff and even Uther himself. It was almost a week later, when Harry felt his shared journal heat up slowly and steadily, alerting him that he had a message.

He opened the book. The words appeared on the first page, in a messy, charcoal script. He didn't hesitate. Conjuring a muggle pen, he quickly scribbled two words down. Not waiting for them to fade to the partner book, Harry summoned his sword from across the room and packed his bags in a moment, heedless of the open doors.

"Sirius!" He banged on the door only thirty seconds later.

"Morgana's been kidnapped."

**Word Count: 2,629**

**Authors Note: Next Chapter should be posted by the ninth of June.**

_**Thanks for Reading,**_

_**SH**_


	11. Chapter 11: Long Distance, Longer Time

**Chapter 11: Long Distance, Longer Time**

**Summary: A few years later, Morgana reflects on what happened.**

Morgana sat up in bed, holding back a scream. She had a nightmare, but surprisingly not a prophetic one. This one was real, a nightmare of a memory. She remembered it as if it were yesterday.

_Morgana sat in the cold cell, watching with an even colder expression the many figures outside of it. Cenred, Morgouse, countless soldiers._

Why had they kidnapped her? Oh yes, to convince her to work for them, bring down Arthur and Uther. Uther wasn't a good man, but he wasn't evil, like they made him out to be. Unless magic was involved, he ruled quite justly. Anyways, magic would return to Camelot eventually. She could wait. She knew Arthur could be a better King, but only with her help.

Waiting, however, had never come easy to her, no matter how determined she was to keep to it. Draco had responded to her message, but that had been hours ago. She was considering using magic. If something delayed them, if they had been caught themselves... She assessed the scene. Only one magic user, she'd knock out Morgouse as Draco taught her, then take out the rest. She would be the only survivor, and write her own tale for it -

No. There was too much chance of something going wrong. Morgouse was a priestess of the Old Religion, and Morgana wasn't fooling herself into thinking she was matched against that.

Morgouse suddenly shifted, she sensed something. Morgana blinked rapidly as she sensed it too. Magic, and a lot of it.

"Explodimus!"* She heard. Two familiar figures rushed through the newly opened pathway, covered in dust from the exploding wall.

"Draco!" Morgana yelled in surprise. His friend Sirius was there next to him, wielding a long thin stick of wood.

Morgana didn't move, only watching as Morgouse turned to see the intruders. A word from Cenred and fifteen men rushed at her rescuers.

Draco and Sirius were holding their own, but fifteen men on two weren't good odds. When the blunt side of a knife, knocked unconscious, Draco got mad. In one burst of power, he sent the remaining men stumbling back.

From her position, she saw Draco easily blast them into unconsciousness. Then she saw Arthur.

Draco, not noticing the prince, continued to blast Cenred and Morgouse back, too, a bright, visible light glowing in his eyes. They hit the wall with a resounding thump.

Arthur stood, open mouthed. He processed Draco's 'betrayal,' looking around the room with a hurt expression. Morgana saw him draw his sword, so she yelled, "Draco!"

Draco turned around and smiled, relieved, at her, still not seeing Arthur. He easily unlocked her cell, and rushed to hug her. "Are you ok?" She heard him whisper. She didn't have time to reply.

"Get. Away. From. Her." She heard. Arthur stood a few feet behind Draco, sword pointed at his back.

Draco turned, finding Morgana's hand and pushing her behind him. Seeing it was Arthur, he relaxed, until the blond yelled accusingly, "You're a sorcerer!"

Draco grimaced. "It's true. I won't deny it."

Arthur growled. "You betrayed Camelot. We trusted you! Lord Draco, is that even your real name?"

'Draco' winced. "Listen, Arthur..."

Arthur stopped him."Don't call me that. And get away from Morgana, or I'll run you through."

"Listen to me first, yeah?" Draco said very quickly, "Sire, I promise you it was not by any evil nature that I practiced magic. I first did it accidentally, I never had a choice whether to use it or not. I..."

Morgana saw Arthur's stony face. He really would run him through.

Draco must have seen it too, because in a split second he whispered a goodbye, his form turned unsubstantial and Sirius disappeared with a crack.

She looked at Arthur, who gave her a hug. "I can't believe he's a  
sorcerer. We trusted him. I think... the King might have even been thinking about having you two marry. I can't believe he was working with Morgouse and Cenred!"

Morgana shook her head. "He wasn't. He came in and blasted them to pieces. Arthur, he..." Morgana stopped. The words Draco said to her drifted back, 'If it hurts you and doesn't even help anybody, why do it?' Draco would be alright. She had to take care of herself, first. "I don't know why either, though. Thank you for saving me, Arthur."

  
Morgana clutched her book to her, despite being home in Camelot, she wasn't alright. She remembered every moment of that day, having to go home and tell the King that Draco was evil, to when she received a message from Draco. Almost habitually now, she opened the book and read 'Draco's last message.  
_  
Dearest Morgana,_

If you've looked this far and found this letter, then I apologize to you. There was way more to me leaving like this than Arthur finding out about my Magic, and it wasn't fair to leave you with the impression that you could find me again.

Do you remember what I told you, that if it doesn't help someone than why do it? I didn't realize at the time you were asking about Arthur's possible marriage. Telling everyone about your magic isn't going to help anyone, and certainly not me. I have a few things to tell you. I'm ashamed to say I've lied, and if I haven't lied than I have concealed the truth. My name is actually Harry Potter, and I live in England thousands of years into the future from where you are.

I only concealed my own name because it's rather well known. Harry Potter is known as the Boy-Who-Lived, the one destined by prophecy to defeat Tom Marvolo Riddle. It's not a title I want, nor a destiny I asked for. And under certain circumstances, I would abandon it, to live in Camelot.

Camelot was akin to an escape for me, somewhere that no one had ever heard of Lord Draco, much less Harry Potter. It was somewhere I could be myself, especially with you. I'm sorry for leaving you abruptly, and I'm sorry I'm returning to the future. I want you to enjoy life, because it will be wonderful. When I promised magic returns to the kingdom, I wasn't lying. I know, for an absolute fact that it's true (even though my friends in the future no longer let me read history books.)

I want you to know that being your friend was one of the best things in my life, and even though I can never see you again I'll always remember you.

Harry James Potter

That had been so long ago. So long that she knew Draco- no, Harry's assurances of Albion were not far away. But no matter how many messages she sent, she never got a reply. Merlin and she were working on Arthur about the magic - he was King now, Morgouse had killed the King in a ferocious battle, during which Merlin and she had both seen the other perform magic. They worked together after that, and Merlin had even introduced her to the Last Great Dragon! (Not really the last, anymore. Aithusa, the baby white dragon and she got along famously.) Life was going well here, and everything was turning out for the best. She only wished...

It didn't matter. He never responded, and it was almost impossible to send a message to him.

That didn't stop her from trying.

**Word Count: 1473**

**Does this part make sense? I tried to convey that Morgana was reflecting on the latest episode from a few years later, but it got all jumbled.**

***Yes, that is actually proper Latin. **

**SH**


	12. Chapter 12: Dragon Talk

**Chapter 12  
Dragon Talk**

**Summary: Harry and Sirius arrive back in the future, but not where they expected.**

Harry landed hard, an unconscious Sirius slumping a few feet away. He was dizzy - he didn't think anyone had noticed, but Morgouse cast something on him, just before he left the castle of Fryen.

Where had they ended up? Harry had only thought 'get away!' He wasn't thinking straight enough to decide exactly when, or where. He looked around, stumbling over to where Sirius lay. He wasn't as badly injured as Harry feared - he was bleeding a lot, but head wounds did. Harry debated for a moment, then cast an ennervate.

Nothing happened. What could stop an ennervate? Harry sat dumbly, staring past Sirius's still form with a mental blankness. He couldn't be dead. He couldn't. He felt his godfathers wrist, searching for a pulse. Upon finding one, Harry relaxed enough to look around, finally taking in his surroundings.

He was in a field, an empty field, with nothing in any direction. Grass dominated the landscape, a small, shrub-like tree being the only shade.

Harry's jaw clenched. He had just lost Camelot, he could never return. And now he had to find his way home to Hogwarts. He had absolutely no idea where he could be, no idea when he could be, and Sirius wasn't waking.

Harry brought his bags out, resizing them. He had his firebolt with him this time, but it wasn't big enough to hold the two of them. Harry re-shrunk his bag, debating. He started walking, floating Sirius behind him.

Harry had been walking for almost an hour. There wasn't a path, there wasn't a human or creature in sight. He wandered through the tall grasses, determined to find something to mark his location. He didn't dare jump again, not with an unconscious Sirius and no clue where he was.

He didn't like the wandering, though. It gave him time to think, and time to think made him come to terms with a few things.

He would most likely never see Morgana, Merlin, Killagarah, especially Arthur, ever again.

He thought back to Merlin's words. He spoke of destiny. Harry hadn't known the meaning of destiny when he had that conversation! He knew it now. He knew he had to kill Voldemort. He had killed before, but none of his enemies really compared to the power Voldemort had. And Harry really hadn't figured out all of his magic. Sure, he was in better shape, but he had never bothered to sit down and truly understand.

Harry also knew that in some way, somehow, he needed to get help for Sirius, but he didn't know how.

He just kept walking. The land remained unchanged, not altering. Except that... something sparkled, in the sky. It was coming from the direction of the sun, so Harry wasn't sure of it's existence. He thought for a moment of desert wanderers imagining an oasis out of thirst, so he cast an 'auguamenti' and drank, just in case.

No, the spark was still there. In fact, it was getting larger, a glint in the sky that could be mistaken for an areoplane but for its golden colour. Harry didn't pay it much attention, until it became close enough to be recognizable. It was practically overhead when Harry shouted incredulously, "Killagarah?"

The golden dragon didn't respond. Harry thought for a moment. Killagarah was a highly intelligent creature, one that Merlin said had powerful magic. If anyone could help Sirius right now it'd be him.

"Killagarah!" Harry shouted louder, but got no response. In a split second decision, Harry grabbed his broom, and flew at breakneck speed, leaving Sirius gently on the grass.

"Killagarah!" He yelled, and finally the dragon turned.

He squinted, maintaining the shared speed. "Harry Potter, the Time Traveller."

"Yes. And I may need your help, Killagarah, Last Dragon."

The Dragon chuckled. "No longer the last, but the wisest, undoubtedly. My kin do not return to the world unchanged. But, I can see you are confused, traveller. You do not know of which I speak. What has happened to you?"

Harry sighed. "Do you think we could land? I have a friend, he's injured."

The dragon nodded his giant head. "Yes. But speak to me on the way, for my time is not unlimited."

Harry obliged, "Morgana was kidnapped, by Cenred and Morgouse. I saved her, but at the price of banishment. It was... vital for me to get out as fast as possible, so I apparated away. I don't know where or when I am, actually." Harry landed softly on the grass, next to the giant dragon.

"Traveller, I haven't heard those words in hundreds of years. You have appeared in the 20th century. I remain in a land hidden from all humanity. Aithusa and I are the only dragons of our kind left. All the others have gone dumb - only conversing in the most simple dragontongue, so simple the dialect is changed to roars and whimpers."

Harry gaped. "I... how are we here, Sirius and I?"

Killagarah took a moment to speak. "Outside my borders, traveller, there is turmoil in the world. Bloodshed is not a foreign concept to me, but this must be stopped. You are aware you hold the power to do this. You share the magic of my old friend, Merlin."

Harry realized that Killagarah didn't answer his question, but let it go. "I have his power, but I don't know how to use it."

The dragon chuckled. "It is your power too. You are meant to wield this, and to save the world from an evil like we have never seen. The Dragonlord's dragons knew that."

"The Dragonlord's Dragons?"

"The dragons borne of a humans touch." Killagarah made the dragon equivalent of an eye roll. "Merlin was the last Dragonlord. After his death, the Dragons adapted to a world with no Lord, but at a price."

Harry was shocked. He had no idea dragons used to be intelligent, somehow assuming Killagarah was the exception. "I'm sorry." He said sincerely.

They stood in silence for a moment.

"I can do nothing for your friend."  
Killagarah said. "Everything will be restored in due time."

Harry nodded. "You somehow brought me here." He stated. He had reached a stage of almost casual acceptance. His experiences were far too curious to be surprised anymore. It was a  
feeling akin to entering the wizarding world for the first time.

"Merlin..." Harry muttered. He hadn't recovered from losing Camelot, not yet. But this was something he needed to do. "Merlin said you knew much about  
our magic. Can you help me?"

Killagarah nodded his giant head. "Only, traveller, if you help me."

"If I can help you, I will." Harry vowed.

"Then I can teach you. I have, on occasion, ventured outside our private lands. I am up to date on the present magic manifested in humans.

"Magic is a complicated matter, and not to be trifled with. It can manifest in many ways, but since the creation of wands," Harry reflexively looked back at his sleeping godfather, "It shows itself in a series of alterations. In the present understanding of the world, nothing is created or destroyed, yes? Energy changes and shifts forms, but never dies. That way of thinking is expressed in how one wields magic." The dragon paused, lying down lazily.

"Your friend Merlin wielded the power over life and death. That power has never again been reached, as far as my knowledge goes. It is a lost art, or had been, until your power changed to mimic his. Many things have been renewed with your actions, and if they have not been than my hope is they will be in future."

Harry furrowed his brow. "How does the nature of magic change?"

Killagarah rested his head on his front legs, "Manifestation, not nature. It is still possible for one to control life and death, but the methods once known to do so - the cup of life, the isle of the blessed - they are lost. I remember you saying you had trouble with transfiguration. That is because over time, the way wizards use magic was altered and the magic adapted to the  
types of wands they now use. Now you have the raw magical power based on change and creation, not alteration. It is the reason conjuring is simplistic. Changes within an object, not changing its nature, are a form shared by both magics. There are many other changes, and many lost arts. It is the way of the world for this to happen."

Harry nodded. "I was able to change myself into a merman once. I suppose that makes sense. But I still don't know how to fully wield this power; I haven't been taught, and I got less work done with Merlin than I hoped."

Killagarah chuckled. "I am not a warlock, traveller. My own magic functions on a completely different level. But I do have a way to teach you."

Harry sat up straighter from his seat in the grass. "What must I do?"

He gave a dragon like smile. "I had a price, I recall. But the two go hand in hand. For my price, I wish for you to restore the Dragons to  
their former glory."

Harry blinked. "How should I do that?"

The dragon chuckled again. "You will gain that knowledge, for I will give it to you." He blew on Harry, sending a translucent wave over to him.

Harry closed his eyes, as with the wave came knowledge that he simply couldn't process in a moment - it was too much. In a state of near unconsciousness, Harry heard the dragons clear words.

"You are the first Dragonlord in a thousand years. The Dragons need you, and so you must aid them. But first, my Lord, you must wake up."

-—-

"Harry?" The named boy groaned. "Harry! You're awake!"

Harry opened his bleary eyes. "What's happening?" He croaked. His voice seemed stiff from disuse.

"Harry! You're awake!" Harry finally recognized the voice.

"Sirius! But..." He frowned in confusion.

Sirius spoke placatingly, "You've been out for several days."

Harry gaped. "But... I, you were the one - wait. When are we?"

"Back in our own time. You know, I don't actually know what happened. I was knocked out. Is Morgana okay?"

"She's alright. She was with Arthur when I left. But I won't be going back to Camelot." Harry said.

Sirius digested his words; he put his hand on Harry's shoulder, in a show of support. "I'm sorry, Harry."

Harry nodded. "It's okay. It just means I have to face the real world again. Kalens," he said, and a glittering representation of the date appeared. August 2. "Right. Where are we?"

Sirius grinned. "Osie, France. I may have broken into the house of a family on holiday."

"Right." Harry stopped for a moment, then shook his head to clear it. He was having trouble focusing. He didn't know if his earlier experience was reality or dream, but he had gained an incredible amount of knowledge to sort through. He could focused o "Let's get going, the extent of my French is bonjour and je m'appelle." Harry grimaced. "Dare I ask if you can drive? I don't know how far the nearest Floo is, and I don't want to chance jumping again."

Sirius turned his head. Harry reached for his glasses, before realizing that he could see clearer without them. Outside, in the drive, stood a motorbike with two helmets. Sirius gave an almost manic grin that worried Harry a great deal.

Sirius lost his smile, and gave Harry a hand to get up, which he took. "Steady." Sirius said, now serious. "You've been unconscious for a while now."

He tried - desperately - to ignore his godfathers questionable driving skills, as he took them who knows where, and focus on the knowledge he'd recently been given.

It looked like he had a new task.

**Chapter Word Count: 1955**

_**Thanks for Reading!**_

_**SH**_


	13. Chapter 13: Summer Arrangements

**Chapter 13: Summer Arrangements**

**Summary: Harry visits many Weasleys, and learns about Dragons. **

"Harry, dear! It's wonderful to see you!" Molly Weasley enveloped Harry in a giant hug. "And you too, Sirius." She said slightly less enthusiastically. "Come in, come  
in. I'll make you some breakfast. Where have you been? Albus said you two would return at the end of summer."

Sirius shrugged. "Change of plans."

Harry patted down his wind-blown hair, and noted the atmosphere begin to change. Mrs. Weasley wouldn't be fine with just a 'change of plans.' At someone, at some point very soon Mrs. Weasley was going to blow, and Harry didn't want it directed at him. In a purely self-serving means of escape, Harry quickly asked, "Is Ron here?"

Mrs. Weasley smiled kindly. "Of course dear, he's in his room. You go on up."

Harry grinned, "Thanks, Mrs. Weasley." He then waved to Sirius, who was glaring daggers at him, obviously unimpressed by his getaway.

As he climbed the stairs, Harry heard a screamed, "Why did you bring him back here? It's not safe, not with You-Know-Who and all!"

Harry shook his head, and took the stairs two at a time to reach his friends room.

"Hey Ron!" Harry said cheerfully. "How's your month been?"

Ron, who was reading the Prophet, looked up in surprise. "Oh, it's you."

Harry tilted his head at the unenthusiastic greeting. "Everything alright, Ron?"

Ron sat up in one fluid, angry motion, slamming the crunched newspaper on the bed. "No, no its not!"

Harry took a step back towards the door, but Ron wasn't stopping. "You get to go travel through time, meet bloody Merlin for Merlin's sake, and I've been stuck here alone for over a month! Did you even consider your lowly friends who might want to join you? No!" He snarled.

Harry's face fell. "Ron, I-"

Ron cut him off. "Don't even tell me you're going to bring me next time. You said you'd bring me to the last one but you didn't even try to! And we here from Mum, of all people, that maybe things happened differently than you told us after the third task, and from the bloody Prophet that you think Voldemort's back! What kind of best -"

"What kind of best mate am I? The only way I was even allowed to go was because Dumbledore thought it was the secret to destroying Voldemort! And I don't know how that leaked to the press, but Dumbledore says I'm the one that has to kill him! That I'm destined to fight to the death with him! Excuse me if I wanted to spare you the knowledge!"

Ron's angry face slowly turned to one of horror. "So you did, actually face You-know-who? You've got to kill him?"

"I'm the only one who can." Harry said gravely.

"Blimey, Harry. I didn't know."

"It's not your fault. What's the paper been saying?" Now that Ron wasn't angry at him, Harry felt his anger fade. But after being gone for a month, Harry was unsure of what had happened in present day, much less what he and Sirius had changed in the past.

"The Prophet is spewing some story of Dumbledore going round the bend, seeing Dark Lords where there are none. They tried to stick it to you too, but since you've never said anything they kind of stopped. Still, You-Know-Who back? Bloody hell..."

Harry grinned. He couldn't keep going with a serious topic, or he might lose it. "You better be glad your Mum's down in the kitchen yelling at Sirius, or she'd have somehow heard you curse."

Ron shuddered. "Thank Merlin for Sirius."

Harry winced at the mention of his friend. He had to tell Ron he was banished. "Speaking of Merlin, I won't be going back."

"Why not?" Ron asked incredulously.

Harry turned quickly, crossing his arms and scowling at the wall. "I was rescuing Morgana. Morgouse had her, and I saved her. But Arthur came too. He..." Harry choked on the next word, and took a second to master his voice. "I was banished." His last words came out cold and hard - it was that or break down.

Harry didn't know how he let it affect him - he'd been in Camelot a total of 5 months, he'd spent way more time in Hogwarts, but sometimes Camelot felt more home to him than Hogwarts did.

He shook his head and turned around. Ron had a strange expression on his face, and stood awkwardly, not knowing how to respond. Harry spared him the discomfort, asking with a grin, "Now that I know my time in Camelot is over, can I read history books again?"

Ron, oddly, gulped. "Maybe you shouldn't, mate."

"Why ever not?" Harry asked incredulously. "I've been banished, and that's not something that will likely be repealed."

Ron fished for words. "What if..." As Harry turned to face the wall, he didn't see Ron's eyes light up with an idea, "What if you don't like what you see?"

Harry grimaced. "About what happened after I left?" He turned around, and saw Ron nod solemnly.

He sighed. What more did he need to know things didn't go well? "You're right. I'll just let 'Mione screen my history books for the rest of time." Harry thought for a moment. Would Hermione really let him run away from the past (or was it future?) like that? "You won't tell Hermione, right? It's easier if she doesn't know."

"Of course." Harry nodded in thanks. Ron continued, "What do you think's going to happen for the rest of break? I dunno if they'll let you stay here."

They, of course, was Professor Dumbledore, who Harry was willing to believe would automatically send him back to the Dursleys. "Maybe I'll lay low for a while. I'm not sure what they'll decide, but I'm not going back to the Dursley's."

That was all Harry was willing to say. He thought going to the Dursley's was probably their idea, and he had no intention of doing that. He had a vague plan, but first he needed time.

"I'm really tired, mate. Can I -" he gestured to the place in the room where he usually slept when he visited the Burrow.

Ron nodded. "Course, mate. I'll tell mum not to bother you."

"Thanks." Harry said, already setting up his sleeping mat, bringing out a miniature blanket and resizing it.

By the time Ron walked out of the room, Harry appeared to be already falling asleep. Ron's eyebrows rose, but he said nothing.

Harry heard Ron's steps fade as he walked down the many flights of stairs, and took out his book.

He had felt it heat up, the telltale sign of a message being sent. He opened it, and after the message from Morgana was a note from Sirius. Harry, Dumbledore just got off the Floo._ You need to leave before he gets you tomorrow. I don't want you having to stay at the Dursley's._

Sirius,  
  
Harry nodded. If Sirius couldn't convince Dumbledore to let him stay, then Harry wouldn't be able to. It wasn't that he wanted to cross Dumbledore, he respected him greatly, but he wasn't returning to his relatives.

_S,_

Thank you for the warning. I want to inform you that I would definitely never ever leave Britain, I'd be lost outside it. Maybe they can use that information if I ever disappear.

H

After he replied, it was a waiting game until he could act. Harry lay there for hours, unwilling to go to sleep in case he overslept his chance. Finally, when Ron had been steadily snoring for at least an hour, Harry stood.

He packed quickly. In a minute, everything he needed was in his bag, which had been reshaped to sit on his back.

Harry looked at the door, started to walk to it, than turned around. There was no way he could get out of the house walking through it... Unless he used his invisibility cloak. Harry pulled his cloak out and put it on, looking down to check that it covered his feet.

He walked down, wincing slightly when a few stairs creaked. No one seemed to notice, though, so he kept going.

When he got to the Floo, he stopped. Could he just walk through the Floo and hope for the best?

He winced. If his destination didn't have a connection (or a fireplace) he didn't want to think about the results. Instead he made a split second, reckless decision, tossed a bit of powder into the fireplace, flattened his hair, and stuck his head in, "Romanian Dragon Preserve!"

Immediately the feeling of the gentle green flames was taken over by dizzying movement. By the time he reached his destination, he was fairly certain his head had just moved in several impossible ways.

"Hello?" Harry said, relieved that he had landed somewhere, at least.

A man came up to the Floo, and asked, "Who're you looking for?"

Harry was surprised the speaker was English, but he supposed of Charlie worked there, some amount of the people were. "I'm a friend of Charlie Weasley's. I was hoping I could speak to him."

The man nodded. "I'll go get him. Might take a minute, we've got a mother dragon he's just finished dealing with."

"That's fine. Would it be easier if I came through? There's a lot to say."

The man nodded. "Just stay in this room until Charlie comes to get you."

"That's fine. See you in a moment."

Harry removed his head from the Floo, and glanced around. The house was silent, no one seemed to have noticed his late-night activities. He looked at the Floo powder cup, and placed a few galleons on the kitchen table. He didn't know how much the powder was, but he didn't want the Weasley's to not be able to buy some more.

Harry tossed the Floo powder in and whispered, "Romanian Dragon Preserve."

He disappeared in a blast of green flame, with no one the wiser.

"Harry?" Charlie said incredulously as he walked in. "What are you doing here?"

Harry put on a slightly fearful expression, one he had perfected to use when anything magical was publicly mentioned in Camelot. "Dumbledore wanted to make sure I wouldn't be attacked by any Death Eaters. He said they'd be trying even harder since I escaped the graveyard. I said going out of Britain would be best, because Voldemort's" (Charlie blinked rapidly) "Got no power here. To cap the deal, they all know I can handle dragons. I was hoping I'd be able to stay here."

Charlie laughed. "There's a bit more to Dragon Handling than stealing an egg, but don't worry, i understand. When mum heard about You-Know-Who she sent Hermes with a ton of paper clippings and a letter telling me what actually happened, so I'm all up to speed." He stopped for a moment, appearing to remember something. "She also told me Dumbledore said you were staying with a friend in France. Why aren't you still there?"

Harry winced. "I'm not quite welcome there anymore." While this was not quite the truth, but not a lie either. Harry smirked internally.

Charlie nodded apologetically. "The Prophet got some digs in on you, didn't they? Not nearly as bad as Dumbledore, but I'm sorry. Needless to say you won't be kicked out of here."

Harry's first impression of Charlie was reinstated tenfold. Charlie was extremely cool.

"Thank you." He said simply. "Somebody was telling me not to leave this area...?" Harry trailed off.

Charlie nodded. "We don't get many visitors around here... I think the last three were trying to steal eggs, and the latest succeeded. He just wanted to make sure I knew you, is all."

Harry nodded in understanding. He then lit up, and asked excitedly, "Is Norberta here?"

Charlie grinned. "She's nesting. Four eggs - two are coloured just like the father, a Swedish Short Snout - we've been collaborating with other preserves to create hybrids. It's all very exciting, you've come at the perfect time. They'll hatch in under a week. Then we'll have dragonlings to play with - well, when I say play..." He laughed, and Harry joined him, remembering Hagrid 'play' with his baby dragon. "You want a butterbeer?" Charlie asked.

"Sure. So, as long as I'm here what should I do? I have some summer assignments, but those won't take very long. Thanks." Harry added as he took a bottle Charlie procured from a shelf.

Charlie nodded in reply, and leaned in conspiratorially. "You know," He whispered, "Since Dragons are highly magical creatures, and since there are dozens of wards around this place to hide it from muggles... your magic couldn't possibly be tracked. We could always use an extra pair of hands around here, and you've definitely proved yourself capable."

Harry smiled widely. "That would be brilliant!"

Charlie grinned. "Maybe tomorrow we can train you up. You're probably getting pretty tired - we're two hours earlier than Britain - so I'll let you get to bed. You can use my bed, if you don't mind sharing."

Harry waved it off. "It's okay, I've got a sleeping mat. It's surprisingly comfortable, I'll just kip by your bed."

Charlie shrugged, "If you're sure."

"Yeah, thanks though." Harry followed Charlie through the hallways, winding around until they found a small room.

Charlie tried to motion to the small amount of space beside his bed, moving awkwardly to try and help.

Harry grinned and waved him off. "I'm sure you've got something more important than seeing me to bed. Thanks, Charlie."

"Of course." He smiled. "And I get a free assistant for a month. It's a pretty good deal." Charlie turned to walk out the door, only pausing to bid him goodnight.

Harry grinned in return, still smiling as the door closed, and not even bothering to change clothes before he fell asleep, thoroughly exhausted.

_Harry stood in a clearing. He was in a distantly familiar forest, he couldn't tell exactly where it was. He walked around, feeling like he weighed less than air. It took him a moment to realize that wherever he was, he wasn't here. He was similar to a ghost in this setting. He started to explore the new setting, but turned around quickly as he heard two very familiar voices._

There stood Merlin and Killagarah, and between them was a perfectly smooth, pointed, blue dragon egg. He rushed over to them - had he somehow travelled back again?

But no, neither dragon or warlock noticed his presence. Harry walked forward and almost stepped through Merlin. Then he suddenly stopped as he heard something that caught his attention.

"Only a Dragonlord can bring a new dragon into the world. As the last Dragonlord, this solemn duty falls to you, Merlin."

Harry watched as Merlin looked up to the dragon, who was oddly small. Of course, this was over a thousand years ago, so Killagarah must have grown.

"You must give the dragon a name."

Harry watched Merlin close his eyes, searching. He held out his hand and spoke, his voice coming out low and raspy. "Aithusa."

Suddenly the setting changed, and Harry was in a field reminiscent of the one he met Killagarah in. A voice reverberated from the surrounding area, in the old dragons voice. "Now it is you, Harry, that is the last Dragonlord. To revive my race from its... primitive state, you must take the duty of reawakening the intelligence of the Dragons. You are their lord, and therefore their protector. When you hatch a dragon, look deep inside yourself to find it's name, for only then can it hatch."

**Word Count: 2,605**

**So do you guys like the new developments? I'd love to hear what you think. Feel free to review or PM me if you have any questions, comments or concerns!**

_**Thanks for Reading!**_

_**SH**_


	14. Chapter 14: To Hatch a Dragon

**Chapter 14: To Hatch a Dragon**

**Summary: Harry's first two weeks at the dragon preserve go by quite quickly, and Harry finally hatches a proper dragon.**

When Harry awoke the next morning, his head was swimming  
with new information on Dragons and Old Magic. He had thought the influx of information was bad when he was awake, but it was a thousand times worse at night. Besides his first two dreams, he felt like he had swallowed Merlin's magic book, and several larger ones.

He cast tempus with a wave of his hand. 6:12 AM. Harry looked up to see Charlie still sleeping, and stood up to look at his surroundings properly. The room was slightly small but well managed, a wardrobe standing in a corner across from the bed, and a desk behind the door. Harry hauled his bag onto the desk, looking for a change of clothes. All he had were his Camelot clothes, but in this situation Harry thought they would be fitting. Charlie had been wearing short sleeves the day before, so Harry cut the sleeves off of a blue shirt and pulled it on.

Harry noticed his stomach making strange noises, so he left the room in favor of searching for a kitchen.

Harry avoided the closed doors he came to, certain that they were people's rooms. Finally, he found a kitchen, stocked with not only magical but muggle foods as well. He assumed there were some muggleborn dragon handlers here, because he doubted Lucky Charms were well known to many purebloods.

He opened up a cabinet and found loads of dairy products. For a moment he was confused why they weren't in a refrigerator, but upon sticking his hand in he realized it must be magically cooled.

It was an easy enough set up, so Harry was soon making eggs and bacon without a problem. As he did, he thought about everything he'd learned over the night, and wondering when he'd be able to actually hatch an egg. According to Killagarah, any dragon egg hatched by a Dragonlord would be naturally intelligent, but he would need to teach it English himself. Dragontongue - true Dragontongue, mind - would come naturally. And although it would be difficult, he would eventually be able to hatch a good number of dragons, and disappear them to where Killagarah was for the time being, so they could be properly taught. Maybe with more people, the entire race could change back again, but he didn't know how he could himself. He should probably use... He was still deep in thought by the time anyone entered the kitchen, and was abruptly startled when the man spoke.

"Did someone actually make breakfast?" The voice had a distinctive, thick Liverpool accent.

"Still making it, I'm afraid. I don't know exactly how many people work here, but I hope I've made enough."

The man snorted. "You could feed the dragons themselves with that much food. My names Carl," He reached out a hand which Harry took. "Charlie said he'd brought along a friend. I'll tell you, some of the lads weren't happy about having an extra mouth to feed, but you might've swayed them with this."

After taking a few moments to figure out what he had said, Harry laughed, watching the bacon so it wouldn't burn. "I've just gotten here from England, so when I woke up I was the only one awake. I figured no one would mind if I made breakfast."

"I doubt anyone would mind. That smells delicious. And there are only twenty people on this part of the preserve. We've got another team on the other end, but not much interaction overall." Carl informed him. It may have been a bit more helpful if Harry could understand him easily, but there was nothing he could do about that, so he just went back to cooking.

Harry heard people murmuring quietly behind him. "Right, eggs are ready if you want them." He called loudly. Carl, who had snagged a plate without Harry noticing, beckoned the others over cheerfully. They obviously respected Carl's opinion, because they looked at Harry with much less annoyance.

Soon there were about ten people gathered around, talking much more warmly to Harry than he expected. Harry assumed Carl's guess was right. They must not have many good cooks here. Well, at least no one would hate him. He may just end up with cooking duty every day though, which wasn't exactly what Harry had anticipated from this visit.

Charlie arrived a few minutes later, yawning and going to grab a plate. He passed the bacon once without noticing anything different, then immediately doubled back to get a closer look. He comically gaped, looking from Harry to the food and back again.

Harry laughed, and was joined by the dragon handlers already sitting down. "Did you make this, Harry?" Charlie asked, brushing off the laughter.

"Yeah," Harry said. "I may have used up a lot of your ingredients."

Charlie laughed. "I can see that! Don't worry, we can put it in stasis and eat it later."

Harry puzzled over that. He had never heard of a spell to freeze things in time - not at Hogwarts and not from Killagarah. He waited a few seconds to ask, "What's the spell to keep things in stasis?"

Charlie shrugged. "It's more of a ward than a spell, so I have no clue. You'd be better off asking Bill, he took ancient Runes."

Harry nodded. That explained why he didn't know it. Ancient Runes were partially based on Druid magic, and a lot of the advancements commonly used were very recent. He doubted Killagarah had access to that, holed up in his super secret dragon field as he was. Harry smiled at how much jumping through time changed his way of thinking. He doubted he'd be interested in the charm at all, before he went to Camelot.

Harry spent the rest of breakfast hearing about the dragons, and specific spells he needed to know if dealing with them. Since everyone agreed that Harry was acceptable at taking care of himself in the presence of dragons, he was allowed to follow them out to see the magnificent beasts, but always with three experts until he was able to protect himself. Carl was the one who mostly trained him, much to the others' relief.

"You'd do well as a teacher, Carl." Harry said as he shielded against a blast of flame. He was easily the most friendly and outgoing person there, besides Charlie.

"Absolutely no chance." Carl said with a cheerful grin. "Nobody would understand me, for one."

Harry smiled at the joke, but persisted, sending a cutting hex back. "We've dealt with worse. And after a week I think I got much better at puzzling out your words."

"Puzzling them out, you were? That looked like plain confusion to me. Sometimes you didn't even respond." He howled with laughter.

Harry shook his head, grinning at his new friend. He had never been ten minutes in Carl's company without the other cracking a joke. He had heard much the same thing from Charlie, who fondly compared him to Fred and George. Despite their friendly banter, though, Carl taught him a lot about defense and dueling, the latter of which wasn't touched upon at all by Killagarah. He didn't bat an eyelash at Harry casting everything wandlessly, which Harry quite appreciated.

But despite all of his training the first couple days, it took a bit to get where he wanted.

Of course, Harry's main goal was to be alone with a dragon egg, so he could hatch it, but he had to get permission to be alone with the dragons themselves first. That took an admittedly longer time than Harry wanted.

It was actually only an emergency that got Harry in charge of keeping an eye on the eggs. It was two weeks into his stay, but by then Harry had already turned into an extra pair of hands.

"It's good to see you're doing so well." Charlie said as they walked out to see Norberta.

Harry grinned, "It's a lot harder than it seemed, and I didn't even have to learn to control the dragons!"

Charlie laughed. "You didn't expect to be a fully qualified dragon handler in two weeks, did you?"

Harry looked sheepish. He kind of had. Or maybe he was. He never tried to speak dragontongue to one of them, sure it wouldn't work because they were not 'Dragon Lord Dragons.' Charlie noticed his expression and laughed again. He turned to their approaching destination, only to see abandoned eggs and a puff of fire from the distance.

"Blast! Harry, Norberta's fighting another dragon! Keep her eggs warm, they need to be kept under flames!"

Harry yelled a positive response, and took a long moment watching the eggs. He held his hand out, but he didn't cast a spell. Something told him the time was right, he should hatch one now. He gently picked up one of the green-gold eggs, charming the others to remain warm.

Setting it apart from the others, Harry held out his hand, and closed his eyes.

He was determined to hatch the egg, and nothing would stop him. The Dragonlord magic responded to that demand, and somehow, inside his head he heard words swirling around, words he had never heard of but somehow understood. They flowed through his head, jumbling and rearranging until only one remained. It was completely natural to say it, easy to let it roll off his tongue, even knowing the full intention to bring a baby dragon into the world.

"Reniatar."

As soon as the words left his lips, the egg began to crack. A fiery gold tipped snout poked its way out, the color turning a pale green as his eyes appeared. Golden claws on a dark green leg breached the egg's shell, and in under five minutes Harry could see the entire baby dragon. It was a beautiful blend of green and gold, all of the scales were a range of greens while the claws, wings and snout were pure gold. It squeaked, and tumbled over towards Harry.

"Hello, Reniatar." Harry said softly. The dragon bowed it's small head in respect, but only for a moment. After paying respects to its Lord it happily chirped and rushed forward clumsily.

Harry laughed, and stepped towards the little creature. He held an arm out, which Reniatar immediately jumped to. He looked at the other eggs contemplatively. In his mind, billions of names swirled around, trying to fit to each one.

He heard a low voice in his head, rumbling, "Congratulations, traveller. You have hatched your first dragon egg. It is interesting, the name you picked. The name Reniatar means rebirth, and we can only assume that it bodes well for the intelligence of the dragons."

Harry gave a soft smile. He still had plenty to do, but something told him that the work would be worth it.

**Word Count: 1,810**

**AN:Sorry about the short chapter, everyone. I should also warn you that I'm going on holiday to Germany for the next few weeks, so I won't be posting for a while. Don't worry, I'll (hopefully) have time to write some, so you all should have a chapter when I get home.**

**Also, does anyone know what they call the dragon language? I called it dragontongue, but I have no clue if that's right.**

**So many things to say today! I promise this is the last one. Do you all like my OC? I'm _considering _making him the fifth year defense professor. My idea is that Umbridge wouldn't have as much of a reason to be there if 1. There was a willing volunteer, and 2. the whole Voldie's back idea isn't as widespread. Thoughts?  
**

_**Thank you all for reading!**_

_**SH**_


	15. Chapter 15: Going Back Home

Chapter 15: Going Back Home

"Harry, is that a baby dragon?" Charlie asked in alarm, the moment he returned from sorting out the dragons.

"Ehm..." Harry said smartly. He really hadn't considered getting himself out of this situation. "His name's Reniatar?"

Charlie scowled. "You can't go around naming dragon hatchlings, Harry! You'll make yourself out to be some sort of dragon master. Merlin knows that would make the paper. When did he hatch, anyway? They usually hatch within hours of each other. But, while they've fully developed in there, they usually wait for at least a week!"

Harry blinked. He was frantically trying to remember - he had a story all worked out a few hours ago, many of them in fact, but they were all based on him revealing Reniatar to Charlie, certainly not having the red head discover the dragon himself.

Fortunately, Charlie didn't give him time to reply. "Well, whatever you've done, we'll just have to deal with it. Although Reniatar – what kind of name is that, how do you come up with such bad names, anyway?" He laughed slightly, "Tell me, you aren't some sort of dragon master, right?" He looked at Harry quizzically.

Harry blinked. He had a sort-of plan, but pulling it off would require a lot of skill. "I... what?" Perfect.

It seemed to Harry that, somehow, Charlie didn't buy it. Harry barely knew what he was doing, though, so that may not have been purely Charlie's skepticism. Harry found he had become amazingly good at ignoring the insanity that his life had become. When talking to dragons and snakes and casually running away from school to travel through time became common, Harry honestly didn't think anything could faze him anymore.

On a similar note, he was still receiving information that Killagarah had given him. This made everyone think that he was a very fast study, because he 'learned' whatever the workers thought he should know on the first try.

Yet even with life continuing somewhat normally, Harry's constant question lingered: Should he tell anyone? He in constant worry, sneaking away at spare moments to talk to Reniatar and avoiding Charlie, who was most likely to find out his secret. He spent the majority of his time with Carl, who didn't mind the extra help at all. Carl was also good at not asking questions he knew Harry was secretive about.

Not to say they didn't talk, or ask each other questions. "Carl, have I told you you should be the defense professor?"

"I'm not even qualified. Wouldn't I need to, y'know, be a professor?"

Harry snorted. "If all our teachers were qualified, then I'd be scared for the system. And the future of mankind."

"They can't be that bad!" Carl chuckled.

"Er... the first was a man who pretended to stutter to conceal the fact that he had Voldemort," Carl winced slightly, "On the back of his head. The second's best and only spells were Lumos and Obliviate, which he used to steal various peoples fame." Harry took a deep breath. "The third was okay but he got sick practically every month, the fourth was a dead death eater under polyjuice as a ex Auror. Trust me, you're qualified."

"Oh."

He did have a few more chances to... convince Carl to come to Hogwarts, most of which didn't seem to end as well. Carl had gone to a small private school in Liverpool, so he didn't know much about Hogwarts. Harry mentioned that he'd have his fill of magical creatures - and creature lovers - in the Forbidden Forest and Hagrid.

Carl did some questioning of his own, too. Harry thought it was quite constructive, but bothersome.

"Where did you get that bracelet?" Carl asked as they 'trained' Reniatar to come to wherever they clapped their hands by holding chunks of meat. Harry doubted the validity of this on less intelligent dragons, but it was going pretty well.

"From my friend." Harry answered softly. Morgana. He had effectively blocked her from his mind for the most of his time at the preserve.

"Is it from a girl?" He asked mockingly, laughing easily.

Harry looked at him sharply and nodded, turning back to whisper a few choice words to the dragon. A few blissfully quiet minutes passed.

"Every time you're in the papers, you're shown with glasses. Are those just for show?"

Harry groaned and stopped his Draconic* muttering. "I used to need to wear glasses. I got my eyes fixed."

Carl looked surprised. "Really? That's a bit dodgy. Isn't that magic still in a experimental stage?"

Harry grimaced. Hang on - "Yeah, my friends in France are pretty good at it though. It wasn't too bad, but it hurt a lot."

Carl made a sympathetic sound. "I suppose that's why your eyes turn gold when you do magic. It must be a reaction caused by the influx of magic through your eyes." Noticing Harry was looking at him oddly, he continued, "Sorry, Muggle school ramblings. My cousin Chris taught me enough to be confusing wizards left and right."

"It's ok, I was raised by muggles." Harry grinned at Carl's surprised face. "I was so confused when I first came to Diagon Ally. Never mind that everyone at the Leaky Cauldron wanted to shake my hand." He ended bitterly.

Carl laughed at him to lighten the mood, and Harry had to join in.

A day later, of course, Carl was back to asking questions.

Harry was wearing a sleeveless shirt, completely forgetting about the scar on his arm.

"That's a funny scar." Carl poked at it.

"How's it funny?"

"Well it's just like the one Lord Draco got from saving Merlin's life, isn't it?"

Harry frowned. "It is?"

"Yeah!" Carl said enthusiastically. "Down to the size and everything. They say it came from being bitten by a magical creature, and he nearly died before being healed by his Lady Morgana."

Harry snorted. "Yeah, I travelled back in time to save Merlin from an unknown beast. What did you do last summer?"

Despite the escape working with Carl offered, Harry had the nagging feeling that there was no way he could tell Charlie without him getting angry, concerned or scared. He knew he would have to explain, and then... he had no clue.

When given the option of working with Charlie the next day, Harry grabbed it. "Hey Charlie? What's a Dragon master?" He asked false-eagerly.

Charlie looked a bit confused, but answered his question. "A dragon master - or it might've been Lord, I dunno - was a person able to control and hatch dragons. Merlin was supposed to be the son of one, and the ability died out around that time."

Harry nodded. "Well if it died out, was it hereditary?"

Charlie nodded. "Probably, yeah."

Harry frowned. "So if there aren't any dragon lords anymore, and they were the ones who hatched dragons, then why are the dragons still here?"

Charlie furrowed his brow. "I honestly don't know. I don't think they were the only ones able to hatch dragons, they probably hatched on their own as well."

Harry nodded.

"I, well, I mean, I was interested because it seemed like it was right after I gave him a name, that he hatched." He looked anxiously up at Charlie, "It kind of... came to me. In my head and I don't understand it because I know what the word means but it's not in a language I know and I'm scared, Charlie. What's happening? How did I do that, why did he hatch?"

Charlie took in his words calmly, waiting a long moment before answering. "I'm not sure. We'll keep this to ourselves, though. I don't know everything that's happening but I think telling everyone would be a mistake."

Harry looked at him worriedly. "What should I do?"

"Well," Charlie said. "I see two options. We can pretend it just hatched on its own, but no, we can't. They hatch within hours of each other. Unless you think you can hatch the other two?" He looked hopeful that this was the case, and Harry wondered what his other idea was.

Harry looked at the nest, and the names settled on each of the two eggs. "Yeah. I can. It's odd, I can see the names swirl about and match up to each egg, but the names are strange." Harry didn't need to fake the emotions for that, which felt nice after deceiving Charlie for so long.

"What are the names?" Charlie asked.

Harry pointed to each one as he said them, "Flavina and Entrexas."

As Harry expected, but Charlie definitely did not, the two dragons began to hatch.

Harry watched in fascination as a large gold and red dragon emerged, and a slightly smaller, completely midnight green egg fell to pieces, it's dragon holding haunting golden eyes. Immediately the two bowed to him, and Harry greeted them as he had Reniatar. "Hello Flavinea, Entrexas."

Charlie was frozen in spot, surprise dominating his features. "Wicked." He breathed, blinking rapidly and pinching himself to assure that it was real. Once he did, he turned abruptly to Harry. "We can't let anyone know about this. It would scare people, and make the news... in this climate the paper wouldn't put the best spin on it." He laughed humorlessly, "Ron was right, you do get into all sorts of situations. I wonder..." He stopped.

Stepping over to the former egg's nest, he picked up something that was lightly glinting among the broken egg shells. It looked like a pebble, no larger than Charlie's fingernail, but it shone an unearthly glittering green that wasn't natural, even in a dragon nest.

"What is this? Are you getting any names for it?" Charlie asked, holding it up between two fingers.

Harry squinted at it, holding out a hand to take the small metal-like object. Charlie set it on his palm, and Harry immediately knew the name. "Basiligar."

The tiny egg hatched, piece by shining piece. A tiny, metallic green dragon no bigger than Harry's pinky hatched, wings laying outspread on Harry's palm, barely reaching either side of his hand. The minuscule creature looked up and bowed to Harry slightly, then sitting back on his hind legs to get a good look at the world. He snapped his jaw on a passing fly, and curled up in Harry's hand, content.

Charlie gaped. Harry grinned, the live dragonling reminded him of the miniature Horntail he still had from the first task. He wanted to know how Basiligar would react to the animated figurine.

"I probably can't tell them about him." Harry said with a ghost of a smile. Charlie shook his head. "I should probably leave earlier than planned, too. This could end badly for you."

Charlie thought about that, but replied solidly. "I won't make you leave." He said.

"Thank you."

They didn't speak for a while, and the only sounds were of the young dragons playing with one another. Harry walked over to the building, tracing the familiar route to Charlie's room.

He grabbed his belongings, pausing at his notebook. Sirius. Quickly, he penned a note,

_Sirius,_

_I'm coming back to England. Is there any news?_

_H_

Harry turned back to his bag, but not five minutes later his book warmed up.

_Harry,_

_Stay away from the Burrow for a while. It's probably best to disguise yourself if you go to Diagon, too. Dumbledore's looking for you, really wants to make you go to your relatives place._

_Listen, my childhood home is Number 12, Grimauld Place, London. I want you to meet me on the street in an hour._

_ S _

Harry closed the book with a scribbled, "_Okay, see you soon._" Before he left, he whispered in the dragon language to the tiny but oddly heavy creature currently clutching his sleeve, "Stay hidden in my pocket, get some sleep."

He shouldered his bag and walked into the hall. Harry knew Carl would be in his room at this time of day.  
The dragon crawled into Harry's pocket, and Harry knocked on Carl's door.

"Hey, c'mon in Harry."

Harry sat down on the chair at Carl's desk, and said, "Carl, I  
have to leave soon."

Carl frowned. "Why? Can't you stay until school starts? You've got over a week."

Harry shook his head. "I've... done some good things, here. But to be honest I wasn't supposed to come in the first place, and I don't want to get anyone in trouble. It's been brilliant, it really has, but I've got to go."

Harry knew it was only a matter of time before people connected the three smart, baby dragons to his presence, and he didn't want Blisiga to be found. Merl- Killagarah only knew what that was. On that topic, he needed to consult Killagarah on that.

"Well, I can't say I'm glad we're losing my free help." Carl said, but the joke fell flat. Harry smiled anyway. "I'm sure you'll do fine. You're a fast learner, and that might be very important in the years to come."

"Do you think..." do you think you would teach at Hogwarts? "Where do you think I should Floo to?" Harry changed his question quickly. It wasn't worth asking (again.) He wasn't that much of a clot pole, and it was obvious Carl didn't want to.

"Just Floo to Diagon Ally, I suppose. You don't mean to leave now?"

Harry shrugged. "No time like the present. I need to leave before I can be convinced to stay, it'd be way too easy. You know what? I'll ride my broom. Which direction is west? Well, no, I can use point me. Thank you, Carl. It's been great."

Harry sat down at the table, across from Sirius. Carefully, he brought out the mysterious dragon, Basiligar from his jacket pocket.

"This dragon was in the preserve, in the nest with the rest of them. After the others hatched, he hatched on my palm and sort of attached himself to me." Harry fibbed. He wasn't ready to reveal the whole Dragonlord business, it was bad enough that Charlie knew. But it felt good to be able to tell the truth, even just a little bit.

And Sirius thought seeing four dragons hatch was pretty fun, and made Harry go into excruciating detail. Of course, Harry let it slip that he had dealt with dragons before, in first year. That turned out to be a mistake, as Sirius latched onto it and barely ever stopped speaking of it. Harry assumed it was because, now that they were back in their own time, Sirius was on the run and Harry was expected to fight an evil wizard who had destroyed everyone's lives. There was precious little else to get childishly excited about.

Besides Sirius's cooking. Harry made a big deal about banning Sirius from cooking again, and insisted that he should make the food for the next week. Kreature, the ancient house elf, was perfectly fine with this arrangement, as he hated everything to do with Harry or Sirius. They avoided each other, which suited them all just fine.

In this manner, Harry passed the week before school started barely leaving the house, but for school supplies and food. Before Harry knew it, he was running through platform 9 ¾, and heading back to Hogwarts.

**Word Count:**** 2,500****  
**

**AN: Sorry about the considerably longer wait than I said it would be. I worked on this chapter and basically rewrote it a few times, and I still really, really hate it. **

**I'm having a bit of trouble deciding where I want this to go, so don't expect the weekly updates I'm sure you all loved. **

**Also, my writing depends on what happens in Merlin (Because don't worry, guys, he'll go back again,) so at that point I'll be waiting to see where the show is heading. **

***Since Draco means dragon in Latin, I thought that would work for a description of the language. Still have no idea what it's supposed to be called.  
**

**Thanks for Reading,**

**SH**


	16. Chapter 16: Back in the Swing of Things

Chapter 16

As Harry got onto the Hogwarts express he had the feeling that everything was much different than he remembered. Perhaps it was because he had gotten three good Bertie Bott's flavors in a row, perhaps it was because of Ron and Hermione being the Gryffindor prefects. He grinned as Hedwig swooped down and landed on his arm. "Hey girl, made it back from the Weasley's?" she hooted her assent. "Do you want to ride on the train, or fly along to Hogwarts?"

The feathered creature took off from his arm but stayed near him. Harry nodded. "Alright, Hedwig. I'll see you later then. Here, I think it's mouse flavored." He handed her a Bertie Botts bean, and she took it with an affectionate nip. The return of his beloved pet brought him back to his thoughts.

What was wrong with him? He loved Hogwarts, it was his home. It had been his home since he was eleven. But somehow, the drafty halls of Camelot castle, filled with bustling servants, anti-magic kings and his friends, Merlin, Morgana... it seemed like home too. And he had messed things up too much to go back.

"Hello, I'm Harry. Mind if I sit here?" Harry stuck his head in a compartment, and the blond inhabitant peered back at him, looking up from a newspaper.

"Hello Harry Potter. My name is Luna. No." The strange girl said.

"No, you don't want me here, or no you don't mind?" Harry said with a hesitant grin.

"No I don't mind." She smiled absently.

Harry grinned wider and motioned his trunk up to the rack. "Brilliant. Thanks, Luna."

Luna nodded, "Harry?"

"Yeah?"

She motioned to his hands. "You forgot a wand. And words."

Harry cursed. "I forgot my wand! It's still at Sirius's." He cursed again. "Er..."

"It's alright. I already know."

Harry's head whipped around to look at Luna closely. His heart beat quickly, and he spoke in a croak, "Know what?"

"That Sirius Black is actually innocent, because his real name is Stubby Boardman." Luna said absently. "Lovely singer. You're lucky you were able to spend so much time with him."

Harry gaped. He looked at Luna carefully, and noticed her eye twitch ever so slightly. Was she joking, or hiding the truth behind this Boardman buisness? He decided there was only one way to find out. "How did you know?" He gasped.

Luna softly smiled. "I think we will be very good friends, Harry Potter." She handed him a small twig, and went back to reading.

Harry looked at the twig. Why would she give him this? What purpose did it serve? Hang on - the wood was holly. A stick of holly wood! Harry conjured more wood around it, until it looked passibly like his old wand. "Luna, I think you may be right."

Harry spent the rest of the train ride comfortably chatting with Basiligar. Luna was talking to what seemed to be thin air. Eventually, Harry had to ask her why, and she responded simply. "Nargles."

Harry nodded. "Alright."

"I could do the same thing for your drawf dragon, if you like." She said, holding her hand out as if to catch something.

Harry tilted his head. "What did you do to them?" The way she held her hand made it seem like she was carrying a nargle, but Harry wasn't sure. Was this some  
wizarding world thing he had never heard of?

Luna smiled brilliantly. "It was Daddy, who did it. But he taught me - Cornelius's Fudgery is infested with Heliopaths - and it would make it much simpler."

Harry blinked rapidly, as several small... blobs appeared in the compartment. "Nargles, I presume?" Even in the wizarding world, Harry had seen nothing like them.

"They don't seem to like you very much." Luna frowned. "But they tell me it's because you speak to Killagarah, and he stopped talking to them."

Harry jerked backwards as one little blob - Nargle - came towards Basiligar, and Harry snatched the little dragon back protectively.

From the other seat came light laughter. "Its alright. And the Nargles only agreed to let me show them to you because you are a speaker. They're fickle creatures, but you impressed them with Dragonspeak and Parsletongue."

Harry squeezed his eyes shut, and opened them again. The Nargles were still floating around, and Basiligar chased one playfully down Harry's leg. "So the whole Fudge's Heliopaths thing, that was a password or something?"

"Or something. You want me to cast the spell on your dwarf dragon?" Luna asked, pulling out her wand.

"Uh, hang on a second." Harry asked Basiligar his opinion, and receiving a positive reply, (You mean I could go anywhere?) he relayed the message.

Luna nodded, squeezed her eyes shut in concentration and said, "Concelo ab Magicum," waving her wand in Basiligar's direction.

Harry looked down at the apparent dwarf dragon. There was nothing there. Harry looked down at the seat, feeling like he was wearing his invisibility cloak. He also had the incredible feeling of near-weightlessness. "Luna?" Harry said, slightly panicked.

"Oh. Oops." She said, blinking owlishly.

"Oops? Oops! I'm invisible! Do you know the counter-charm? Please tell me there's a counter-charm."

Luna looked at him sheepishly. "Why would I need a counter charm? The Nargles don't want it. But I can try... Cornelius's Fudgery is infested with Heliopaths?" She ended in a question.

"Did it work?" Harry asked, holding up a hand to answer his own question. "Yes! I can see myself." He noticed Basiligar on the seat, and grinned. "Brilliant. Thanks Luna."

Luna looked edgy. "Harry? I can't see you."

"Really? But Basil and I can see each other."

Luna frowned. "Sorry about that. I forgot, my Daddy said there was something else you had to say for the password to work. But I must've botched it, because everyone within two meters should be able to see you two."

"Right. Bas?" Harry asked. The little dragon chirped, and landed on his shoulder. "Good. I have to find Hermione, she's our best bet for knowing what to do."

Luna nodded. "I am truly sorry, Harry." She said sadly.

"I don't blame you, Luna. You were only trying to help. Er, can you open the door for me so it doesn't seem like its opening on its own?"

"Sure." Luna moved to the door and slid it open. "The Prefect's are up front, right?"

Harry shrugged, then realized his mistake. She couldn't see him. "I dunno. It's a good place to start looking though." He said aloud instead.

Harry walked carefully through the hallway, working his way to the front. He jumped as Lee Jordan stuck his head out from his compartment, and skidded to a halt, or tried to. The whole train shuddered, and Harry was thrown into the open door of Lee, Fred and George's compartment.

"What was that?" Fred said worriedly.

Lee shrugged, standing up and dusting off his robes, inadvertently walking through Harry to do it. Harry gasped, and the three looked around wildly, to find the source for a few moments. After a awkward moment of Harry, invisibly and weightlessly rising from the floor, lifting off into the air accidentally. In his head, he cursed the strange spell Luna put on him, and waited for gravity to slowly bring him down. No wonder the nargles liked the spell, though. this ability could be very fun (under the right circumstances. This, however, was not one of them.)

"Anyways, Lee." George said, finished investigating the noise. "What've you got on that plan to break the girls staircase ward?"

Harry covered his face with his hands. He didn't have a spell, he didn't have a plan, and he definitely didn't want them to know he was listening in on their planning. Harry sighed, leaning up against the side of the compartment- only to fall through, and hit the ground. He groaned in annoyance, and moved to stand. He really, really needed to become solid again.

Harry felt as if gravity crashed down on him. He much to the surprise of Fred looked at him with one eyebrow raised, while George said, "I suppose this is one of those times?"

Harry nodded, thankful for thinking to gain the twins . "Thanks, George, Fred. You too Lee. I have to go."

"Why didn't I try that before?" Harry muttered, walking over various semiconscious students to reach Luna's and his compartment.

"Hello Harry." Luna said. "I'm glad you're visible again. It's much easier to see you that way."

Harry sat down and nodded. "Yeah, I guess it would be."  
The pair was silent, but not awkward. Luna seemed completely comfortable reading and editing some unknown papers, while Harry quietly chatted with Basiligar. By the time the train pulled into the station, they hadn't said a word about the actions in the aisle. Harry, feeling a tiny bit awkward at how little he knew of his compartment companion, asked, "Luna, what year are you in?"

"I'm in fourth this year. And you're in fifth. I hope Voldemort doesn't keep us from completing school. You should speak to Dumbledore about it."

Harry frowned. "How, why-"

Luna rolled her eyes, swiping her brilliant blond-white hair aside to reveal the radish earrings she wore. "The smallest action can change everything so easily, Harry. Don't forget that."

Harry spent the rest of the night contemplating the words of his new friend. It was freaky how much she knew. Was she a seer or something? He contemplated the thought. The two 'seers' he knew - Morgana and Trelawney - were completely different. Morgana's powers frequently manifested themselves and the visions she saw always came true. But Trelawney, she had only made one or two truly correct prophecies in her lifetime. With the addition of Luna in this, it was becoming more likely that Trelawney was a fraud. Why did he ever listen to that prophecy in the first time? Because Dumbledore told it to him, that's why.

These thoughts lingered with him well into the first week of classes, popping up at the most inconvenient times. Luna found out about it, of course, and couldn't say either way on the matter. He wasn't paying attention to Ron in Divination, which was apparently a mistake, because he went to work with Seamus and Dean instead. He had gotten over it by the time they were headed to Defense Against the Dark Arts, and was happily complaining about the homework load until Hermione met up with them. Harry hadn't realized how much he had missed his friends until everything went back to normal, and it seemed like he never left. Or, at least, that they forgot.  
Professor Umbridge's class was so far unknown, only the second years had taken the class so far, so no one knew what to expect. Harry, for one, realized quite quickly that her teaching style was mostly composed of not teaching at all, and groaned at the thought of yet another bad professor.

It was worse than that, though. It wasn't that they weren't performing spells (frankly, that suited Harry quite nicely, because he couldn't remember the wand movements to spells he could cast normally in his sleep.) it was the attitude that bothered him. She abused her power more than Cenred ever did! She didn't even want to be teaching, she was just a spy, a ministry spy. In Camelot, spies were killed from the get-go, and how he wished that he could do just that. Alas, he couldn't. His restraint didn't help him escaping a detention, however. It seems starting the argument that led to the whole class practically rioting isn't appreciated by the teacher.

Harry had kept his cool after his miniature outburst, all the way up to his detention. When he learned he would be writing lines, he snorted. When he realized that the quill used his own blood as ink, he almost lost it again.

Instead, keeping his head down, his eyes turned gold, and as he was writing he conjured red ink to supply the quill.

_I must not tell lies. I mustn't tell no lie. I must not tell any line. I must not tell lies. _Harry wrote, bored out of his mind only twenty minutes into the detention.

"Hurts, doesn't it?" Umbridge asked.

Harry frowned in concentration. He knew if he stopped, just for a moment, he would burst into laughter. Even now, a week later when she had seen fit to give him another detention, he sat down and wrote a lovely poem about Morgana, wincing every once in a while at how he was definitely not a poet, and trying not to laugh at Umbridge's smug toad like face.

Besides the joke that was Defense, Harry was enjoying the majority of his classes. He still had trouble transfiguring things, but he got around that by banishing whatever object they were trying to transfigure and conjuring it instead, in the space of about two seconds. He was a bit worried about having to do that for every single transfiguration (Professor McGonagall was bound to find out at some point) so when she asked him to stay after class, Harry was quite worried.

"You wanted to see me, Professor?" Harry asked nervously.

"Oh yes, Potter, Have a biscuit." She waved at a tin.

"Sorry?"

"Have a biscuit, Potter." McGonagall said more forcefully. Harry took a biscuit. Was this the McGonagall version of Dumbledore's lemon drops? If so, it was creepy. "Now, the headmaster has sent you a letter, and I have it here." She lifted a paper off her desk. Harry reached for it, but McGonagall snapped it back. "First, you must know that he doesn't want you to share this with anyone, Potter. Not even Ron and Hermione. I don't know what is in it, nor do I want to. Do you promise to read it, remember it and burn it afterwords?"

Harry nodded. "Sure, Professor."

"Good." McGonagall's lips twitched in what was definitely not a smile. "Then get yourself to lunch." She handed him the letter.


	17. Chapter 17: Panic

**AN: Hello my patient readers! I don't really have a good enough excuse for not updating for so long, and then suddenly picking it back up, so I won't even try. I would like to thank everyone for their wonderful reviews, criticisms, follows and favorites. Reading over the kind things everyone says to me are part of what motivates me to write more. Also, don't worry about season 5 spoilers, I haven't had the chance to watch it yet. So thank you all and enjoy:**

Chapter 17: Panic

Harry rushed through lunch, taking every secret passageway he knew to get to the dorm room faster so he could read the letter.

Dear Harry,

If you are reading this, then Professor McGonagall or I have deemed it a dangerous enough situation that you must know this information, but I cannot tell you it in person. My apologies for that, and hopefully I will come back to discuss it with you later. I must ask you to please burn this messege once you have read and understood it. My messege is as follows:

There is an extremely dark method to gain immortality, one that I think is very likely Lord Voldemort used to postpone his death...

* * *

Horcruxes? Soul anchors? Harry's head spun. What could he possibly do to get these objects, and then destroy them, and then destroy Voldemort? Hell, fourteen hours ago he wasn't sure he even believed in the prophesy!

Harry took a few deep, calming breaths. Dumbledore was relying on him to get this done in case he was going to die tonight. What could he possibly be doing? He knew for a fact McGonagall wouldn't - maybe couldn't - tell him anything. He had no one to turn to, no help he could get. Basil chirped at him worriedly, but Harry waved him off. How could a dragon help him now?

Wait. Dragons! Killagarah! He was the only one Harry could rely on at this point, to know of a method to kill someone who's soul was scattered in unknown places around the earth. Was that hazy state he seemed to have met the old dragon in reachable? He knew the old dragon himself was real, for he wouldn't be a Dragonlord without him. The only problem was reaching him. Merlin himself had gone to Killagarah for advice, well Killagarah usually came to him... That's it! He needed to speak like a Dragonlord so the old dragon would hear.

Basil chirped again, this time more worriedly. Apparently having switched from frantic worry to subdued defeat to frenzied excitement in the space of six minutes was worrisome to Harry's little friend. Why the little creature wouldn't speak English was not his concern right now, but but when he had time he would ask Killagarah that too.

"Basil I'm fine. Grand, actually." Harry responded. "Wait, Basil," the warlock's voice raised to a near yell, "Would you know where Killagarah and Athusia are?"

Basil chirped a reply in draconian, he wouldn't know how to get there. Harry paced with a frantic worry and exhilaration. Dumbledore was probably taking on a Horcrux right now. If he went back in time soon enough, he wouldn't have to worry about needing time to save the Headmaster. If only he could just meet Killagarah in the past...

What was keeping him from the past, really? He wasn't allowed in Camelot, sure, but he could easily disguise himself, approach Merlin or Morgana - that was it. Harry grabbed his suitcase - he had barely unpacked anyway. "Basil," he cried, "What do you think of a little time hopping?"

Basil sent him a look that was probably meant to tell Harry how incredibly reckless and annoying he was being, but relented by crawling into Harry's outstretched hand.

With a loud crack, the two were knocked unconscious over a thousand years into the past.

* * *

Harry woke with a start. He was in a field, the tiny figure of Basil sleeping peacefully next to him. He scooped the little dragon up and held him for a moment, letting him wake up.

Basil woke with a angry chirp and leapt into the air indignantly. "I can fly on my own, thank you very much." He said in English.

"Basil? You spoke English!" Harry said, astounded.

"You didn't expect me to in a school full of children who couldn't see us, did you? It's much easier to whisper without mutilating my tongue to make your strange sounds." Basil glared, his tiny eyes mere slits of brown."

Harry had the distinct feeling that this wasn't the truth. Now that he thought on it, it could be that Basil couldn't speak English at all until he was back in the past, or hadn't been able to... it was something to think about when he found Killagarah. "Ok, ok, I get it. Sure. Well, we gotta figure out where we landed, I dunno what has happened since I left." Harry said a bit wistfully.

"Uh, Harry, you still look like yourself." Basil pointed his tail at the boy lazily. Basil, finally free from speaking only draconian (blast that Luna girl's spell. He was of the opinion that she did it on purpose. Now that they were free of her influence, he wouldn't have to worry about the nasty side effect.) He sighed, and continued, "Also, you can't wear those clothes. I've never even been to the past and I know that they didn't wear clothes like that."

"Right." Harry shook his head to clear his thoughts. Waving a hand over his head, he made himself a tan, light brown haired figure of 6'1. The best part of his disguise was, now that he knew he wouldn't be associated with Harry Potter, he could call himself by his first name.

Digging into his bag, he pulled out his old clothes from his last trip and quickly changed. Frowning, he changed the colors slightly. No need to take unnecessary risks and let some random Camelot citizen notice that they had made his clothes, and that the new owner was effectively exiled.

"Right, Bas. Camelot or Olivanders first?"

Basil blinked steadily. "Why would we go to either of those places?"

"To figure out what's been happening. You know, get the news."

Basil shook his head. "Aren't you in a rush? I'm pretty sure you wanted to kill a certain Dark Lord, not go around chatting with old people."

Harry shrugged. "I guess I panicked a little, but now we're back in time and it doesn't matter much. I mean, we theoretically have all the time in the world. Not that I want to spend all that much time here, but Hermione's still limiting my knowledge, history-wise, and -"

"Harry?" Basil cut in sharply.

"Yeah?"

"Shut up. We're going to see the Dragon. Just because its not a time-sensitive problem right now, its still a problem. You don't need to go to Camelot or Olivanders at all. Probably. Either way, come on, summon the guy!"

Harry blinked rapidly, his face lined with confusion, then understanding. "Well if I must."

Harry opened his mouth, shut it, then opened it again. After a repeat of around seven times Basil apparently got fed up. "What? Why aren't you calling him?"

"I can't. I don't know, I just can't speak it anymore." Harry ran a hand through his hair in frustration.

Basil frowned, an odd look on his draconic face. "I understand. Dragonlord powers are passed through inheritance at death. You might count as Merlin's heir, then."

Harry tilted his head. "Merlin's heir?"

"There's a prophecy. It involves someone with Merlin's powers in the future, who takes over effectively as Merlin's heir. And guess what? You have Merlin's powers. All of them now, even as a Dragonlord." Basil said smugly, settling on Harry's shoulder, contemplating his now-future lord. Harry, while being normally very powerful and intelligent, could be so ignorant that even a two-month-old dragon knew more than him.

"That's ridiculous. How do you even know that? You've never heard any prophecies, or been exposed to any." Harry scowled. Now he just wished that Basil couldn't talk at all, he enjoyed the guy's company more when he wasn't being insulted.

"Dragons instinctively know prophecies. It's a perk of the job. How do you not know of it? I would have thought you'd have learned all you could about Merlin once you got to the future."

Harry muttered something about bossiness and Hermione, then continued, "Well if I were Merlin's 'heir' then I guess I wouldn't have his powers until he died, and he's still alive now. But I already got my powers, because he already died, but he's still alive so I don't, even though I had them..." Harry groaned. "Why did I think time travel was a good idea?"

"You didn't. You swallowed a random potion you found in a random book in a random corner of the library and that's why we're in this mess in the first place."

Harry nodded. "True, but its also why you're alive now. So it looks like we're going to Camelot after all."

"Well get going already." Harry rolled his eyes at the demanding creature, and started walking through the field. "Where are you going?" The small creature asked.

"To Camelot, obviously." Harry replied.

"There are two main problems I see with this picture." Basil started. "Firstly, you have no idea if that's the right direction. Secondly, theres a little thing called magic. It can get you places a lot faster than walking can."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Why did I being you along again?"

"For my sharp wit, smart advice and personable demeanor." Basil deadpanned right into Harry's ear.

Harry paused for a second. "No. And it certainly wasn't to be ridiculed by the dwarf I helped hatch."

"What did you call me?" Basil started.

"A dawrf. An itty bitty dwarf dragon."

"Alright, that's it!" Basil sprung off of his shoulder, looping through the air to head straight at Harry.

Laughing, Harry held his hand out, waited for Basil to land, and apparated.

"That was just plain dirty." Basil said in a whisper.

"Shhh, we don't know if the spell to hide you works here. Get in my pocket." Harry said seriously, but with an evil grin.

Basil muttered to himself about Dragonlords and time travel, "Why don't you say that in draconian, huh?" before settling down in Harry's pocket to wait.

Not five minutes later, when Harry was trudging up the slope towards Camelot, he said randomly, "Basil? Should I take the glamour off to see Merlin?"

Basil crawled up his jacket to perch in the collar of Harry's coat. "Do they have glamours yet?" He asked, louder than necessary into Harry's ear.

"Er, they have the evil dark magic ones." Harry said sheepishly.

Although he couldn't see it, Harry could imagine Basil shaking his head. "Then you probably shouldn't reveal that you're using glamours, unless you want to be the one who came up with them in the first place. You'll just have to ask for their help as a fellow magic user of the time."

Harry shook his head. "Your right, I can't be the creator of another type of magic. Sirius has done enough of that already." Harry felt a sudden pang of regret. Poor Sirius, he hadn't even told the dog that he was leaving. Well, he didn't tell anyone that he was leaving. It was a bit of a rash decision, now that he thought about. The rest of the walk to the castle was deathly silent, and Basil slowly brought himself back to Harry's pocket.

When Harry reached the courtyard, he couldn't for the life of him remember the way to Gaius and Merlin's quarters. Walking up to a guard, he asked timidly, "Er, sorry. Where would I find Gaius, the court physician?"

The guard made a noise in his throat and jammed his thumb behind him. Harry took that as an answer. "Thank you!"

Arriving at the familiar door, Harry paused for a moment. Should he walk in, or knock? Remembering his disguise at the last moment, he knocked four times. "Gaius?" He yelled through the wood.

The old man opened the door quickly, "Yes? Who is it?" He asked.

Harry blinked twice, then cursed himself mentally. He hadn't even thought of a plan, much less made one! He would have to play it by ear. "I was told that Gaius the Court Physician could help me."

Gaius nodded. "Do you have an ailment, then? I suppose you had better come in."

"I have a problem, not precisely an ailment." Harry gave him a meaningful look, which the physician didn't seem to get. "It's less of a physical nature, and more, well, an identity matter?"

"Oh dear. You'd better come in, and close the door." Gaius said. Harry did just that before the man continued. "Draco, Merlin told me you were caught using magic and ran. What could ever make you return now?"

Harry smiled. Good old Gaius. But how did he figure it out?

"How did you figure it out?"

"If you might recall, I was the one who treated that scar of yours. If I don't know what it looks like after stitching your whole arm back together while you bled to death, I wouldn't be much of a physician." He walked away, turning to work on a blue colored potion.

"Alright, at least your the only one who would figure it out, then."

Gaius snorted. "Hardly. When King Arthur sent out a warning about you, that was part of the description. You've gained quite a bit of infamy as a secret evil sorcerer who infiltrated the court, and the alleged kidnapper of Morgana."

"I did not kidnap her!" Harry said indignantly.

"Of course not that time, but once she up and left during the night last year, they had to blame it on someone. You mean you haven't seen her?" Gaius raised an inquisitive brow.

"I haven't seen anyone of pleasant company since I fled. I apparated away, as Merlin might have told you, and landed near an abandoned castle somewhere north of here." Harry added quickly, "Apparation didn't go as well as I had hoped, so I had to find my way back to Camelot by myself. And I'm sorry to say that I brought a problem that needs solving."

* * *

**Okay, so it's pretty short, but I assume you guys want this before I leave for Thanksgiving, where there's no internet connection. Also, we're coming nearer to the end of the story, so if you guys have any questions that remain unanswered, I don't want to forget anything in the wrap-up. **

**Thanks for reading!**

**SH**


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